OJ 


LO 
CNJ 

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Plate  1. — A  STEAMER  IN  TRANSIT. 


THE 

ATLANTIC  &  PACIFIC 

SHIP-RAILWAY 

ACROSS    THE 

ISTHMUS  OF  TEHUANTEPEC, 

IN    MEXICO, 
Considered  Commercially,  Politically  &  Constructively. 

BY 
ELMER  L,  CORTHELL, 

Chief    Engineer. 


JANUARY.     1886. 


C& 


33575 

BOWNE  &  CO.,  PRINTERS, 
124  PEARL  STREET,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE. 

The  constant  and  undiminished  Importance  of  the  East  during  the  last 
three  thousand  years,  as  the  Source  of  the  Wealth  and  Trade  of  the 
World 3 

CHAPTER  II. 

Opinion  of  American  Statesmen  during  the  last  sixty  years  upon  the 
vast  importance  to  this  country  of  an  Interoceanic  Communication, 
and  upon  the  Necessity,  Right  and  Policy  of  the  United  States  to 
encourage  and  protect  any  Isthmian  Crossing  between  the  two 
Oceans 8 

CHAPTER    III. 

Commercial  and  Industrial  Facts  showing  the  paramount  importance  of 

an  Isthmian  Crossing  and  its  Imperative  Necessity 17 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Superior  Advantages  of  the  Tehuantepec  Isthmus — Commercial,  Cli- 
matic, Constructive  and  Strategic 23 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Ship-Railway,  its  Plans,  Practicability  and  Economy 33 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Distances  saved. — Tonnage  expected. — Government  Status  of  the  Enter- 
prise,— Benefits  to  the  United  States  and  Mexico  during  the  Con- 
struction.— General  Results 63 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Reports  of  Congressional  Committees  approving  the  Ship-Railway  route 

and  method,  and  urging  Government  Assistance 70 


332691 


PLATES. 


I.  A  Steamer  in  Transit Frontispiece . 

II.  Map  showing  Tehuantepec  to  be  the  great  Central  Barrier  to  the 

World's  Commerce 22 

III.  Perspective  View  of  the  Dock  and  Car 36 

IV.  Details  of  the  Lifting  Dock 89 

V.  Details  of  the  Car 41 

VI.  Perspective  View  of  the  Floating  Turntable 45 

VII.  Details  of  the  Floating  Turntable..  .\ 47 


PREFACE. 


THE  purpose  of  the  Author  in  the  following  pages  is  to 
present,  in  a  concise  yet  comprehensive  form,  the  commer- 
cial and  political  reasons  for  an  interoceanic  communication 
between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  at  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuan- 
tepec  in  Mexico  ;  also  to  bring  together  the  more  important 
facts  that  prove  the  practicability  and  the  economy  of  a 
Ship-Railway.  The  previous  discussions,  while  complete  in 
detail,  have  been  partial  and  fragmentary.  The  writer  has 
had  exceptional  advantages  in  investigating  this  subject  ; 
he  made  examinations  on  the  Isthmus  and  the  surveys 
of  its  harbors  in  1880,  and  has  since  that  time  conducted, 
through  very  efficient  and  experienced  engineers,  complete 
topographical  surveys  of  the  Isthmus,  on  which  the  plans, 
profiles  and  estimates  are  based. 


THE 


ATLANTIC  AND  PACIFIC 


SHIP- RAILWAY. 


CHAPTER    I.* 

HISTORICAL. 

"  THE  problem  of  interoceanic  transit  across  the  American 
"  continent  has  been  said  to  '  possess  not  only  practical  value  but 
"historic  grandeur'.  Its  partial  solution  is  being  attained  by  the 
"  construction  of  those  railways  which  are  bringing  nearer  to  us 
"  so  much  of  the  eastern  world  ;  but  it  can  be  fully  solved  only 
41  when  such  a  work  has  been  made  as  will  prove  a  maritime  highway 
"  for  America  and  Europe  to  the  western  shores  of  the  continent, 
"to  the  new  world  of  Australia  and  its  surroundings,  to  Eastern 
"  Asia,  and  to  Japan.  To  meet  the  requirements  which  commerce, 
"supported  by  all  the  advanced  appliances  of  this  day,  imperatively 
"  demands,  the  transit  must  offer  the  allurements  of  a  full, 
"  uninterupted,  safe,  and  speedy  transportation. 

"  History  invests  the  problem  with  an  interest  surpassing  that  of 
*'  its  usual  records.  In  this  effort  to  secure  a  western  route  to  Asia 
"  and  the  Spice  Islands  it  is  linked  back  to  the  age  of  the  great 
"discoverer;  and  since  the  object  held  by  Columbus  for  his 
"  sovereigns  was  the  same  with  that  of  the  ages  preceding,  the 
"problem  thus  reaches  back  to  the  story  of  the  coveted  wealth 
*'of  Asia  and  of  the  old  highways  to  it. 

"  India  and  China  !  what  tales  of  marvelous  endeavor  to  secure 
"  their  riches  remain  on  the  pages  of  authentic  history  !  Both 
""  countries,  from  time  immemorial,  famed  for  the  richness  and 
"  variety  of  products  secured  by  the  caravan  which  sought  them  by 
"  weary  routes  from  the  west.  These  were  the  storehouses  of 
"  product  and  luxury,  drawn  upon  more  and  more  as  the  facilities 
"of  commerce  and  land  travel  enlarged  themselves,  yet  ever,  as 
tl  to-day,  without  sensible  decrease.  The  labors  of  the  Old  World 
*'were  to  reach  them  by  an  eastern  route  ;  the  labor  of  the  New 

*  The  quotations  in  the  first  part  of  this  chapter  are  from  the  pen  of  Profes- 
sor J.  E.  Nourse,  U.  S.  N. 


"  World  is  to  reach  them  by  the  west.  Through  the  whole  period 
"of  history,  ancient  and  modern,  it  is  the  same  drawing  upon  the 
"resources  of  the  east.  It  was  their  traditional  inexhaustibility  that 
"  stimulated  the  progress  of  discovery  in  the  Middle  Ages,  opened 
"  up  the  New  World  itself,  and  has  left  for  our  day  the  problem  of 
"  the  new  transit.  It  has  been  reserved  for  our  age,  however,  to 
"crown  the  motives  of  the  past  with  the  higher  purpose  of  extending, 
"over  the  east  the  highest  types  of  civilization  and  Christian 
"enlightenment,  hopefully  to  be  conferred  upon  it  by  thus  advancing 
"the  closer  intercourse  and  fellowship  of  men. 

"  The  student  of  commercial  history  is  instructed  that  during  the 
"last  3000  years  the  steady  tendency  of  commercial  enterprise  has 
"been  toward  the  west,  and  that  'civilization  has  followed  the  sun 
"in  its  course.'  The  steps  of  that  progressive  tendency  are  links  in 
"the  earlier  history  of  our  problem. 

"  To  look  through  the  chapters  of  ancient  history,  is  to  recall 
"without  difficulty  the  fact  that  each  of  the  great  empires  of 
"antiquity  owed  i.ts  supremacy  to  the  conquests  of  commerce  as 
"well  as  war.  As  a  single  instance  of 

"  the  richness  of  that  commerce,  it  may  be  remembered  that  from 
"one  voyage  the  fleets  of  Solomon  brought  back  gold  equal  in  value 
"  to  nearly  fourteen  and  a-half  millions  of  dollars.  * 

"  In  the  days  of  Augustus  the  amount  of  the  precious  metals  sent 
"  to  India  to  pay  for  products  for  which  there  was  no  corresponding 
"exchange  by  the  produce  of  the  west,  was  estimated  at  100,000,000 
''sesterces,  or  $40,000,000.  The  consignments  which  reached 
''  Alexandria  from  the  east  were  directed  to  every  port  in  the 
"  Mediterranean.  * 

"  Before  the  awakening  of  Europe  from  the  sleep  of  '  the  dark 
"ages ',  the  Italians  by  their  intercourse  with  Constantinople  and  the 
"other  cities  of  the  Greeks  having  obtained  a  knowledge  of  the  east 
"and  cultivated  a  taste  for  its  precious  commodities,  were  not  slow 
"to  embrace  and  develop  direct  intercourse  with  India,  and,  in  the 
"course  of  the  twelfth  century,  Venice  established  a  regular  trade 
"through  the  ports  of  Egypt,  which  she  maintained  for  four 
"centuries. 

"  The  marvelous  ascendency  which  the  Mistress  of  the  Isles  thus 
"acquired,  aroused  and  stimulated  the  next  great  commercial 
"enterprise  of  the  world's  history.  The  Portuguese,  who  for 
"generations  had  sought  to  discover  the  realms  of  gold,  in  1498 
"established  a  maritime  ascendency  which  extended  over  the  coasts 
"of  Africa  and  Asia,  from  Mozambique  to  Japan  ;  whilst  their 


4t  famous  cities  of  Goa,  Malacca,  and  Macao  became  emporiums  of 
41  trade  with  India  and  China,  which  had  previously  enriched 
"  Venice  and  Genoa. 

"  From  that  date,  eastern  commerce,  falling  successively  into  the 
<l  hands  of  the  Dutch  and  the  English,  has  at  length  assumed 
44  proportions  which  bear  no  comparison  with  those  of  the  earlier 
'"  ages.  A  new  title  has  been  jeweled  into  the  crown  of  England 
"  while  the  great  highway,  the  realized  dream  of  ages,  is  freighted 
"  daily  from  the  same  storehouses  of  the  east,  enriching  not  only 
"  Europe  but  the  shores  on  our  side  of  the  globe. 

"  The  first  bold  crossing  of  *  the  sea  of  darkness '  links  the 
"  commercial  activities  of  the  Old  World  with  the  New  in  the  person 
"  of  the  great  discoverer.  The  expectation  of  being  able  to  sail 
'"  westward  to  the  Spice  Islands  without  interruption  was  the 
"  principal  motive  of  Columbus  in  undertaking  the  voyage  which 
"  first  marked  the  limits  of  the  Atlantic.  * 

"  The  chief  object  of  his  last  voyage  indicates,  in  a  marked  degree, 
"  his  idea  of  Asia,  since  it  was  undertaken  with  the  single  purpose  of 
"  seeking  along  the  coast  of  the  Caribbean  sea  the  Strait  which  he 
"imagined  formed  a  communication  between  his  discoveries  and 
"  India. 

" '  He  had  been  in  pursuit  of  a  chimera  of  a  splendid  imagination 
"'and  a  penetrating  judgment.  If  he  was  disappointed  in  his 
'"expectations  of  finding  a  strait  through  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  it 
"  '  was  because  nature  herself  was  disappointed.  For  she  appears 
"  'to  have  attempted  to  make  one,  but  to  have  attempted  in  vain.'  * 

"  This  search  for  the  secret  of  the  strait  marks  the  first  era  in  the 
"history  of  direct  efforts  for  interoceanic  communication  across 
"America.  From  this  date  it  is  a  record  of  continuous  and 
"  unavailing  effort  to  find  the  strait,  and  on  a  failure  of  this,  a 
"  record  of  numberless  canal  and  railroad  projects  for  an  artificial 
"  transit. 

"The  discovery  of  the  Pacific  by  Balboa,  and  its  entrance  by 
"  Magellan,  kept  alive  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the 
"  erroneous  ideas  of  the  strait.  Since  it  was  now  certain  that  the 
"new  lands  were  not  the  Indies,  the  next  thing  was  to  carry  forward 
"the  search  for  the  narrow  passage  which  must  lead  to  them. 
"  The  very  configuration  of  the  Isthmus  strengthened  the  belief  in 
"  the  existence  of  such  a  passage  by  the  number  of  its  openings, 
"  which  seem  to  invite  entrance  in  the  expectancy  that  some  of  them 


*  Washington  Irving. 


6 

"  must  extend  across  the  narrow  breadth  of  land.  For  this  great 
"  purpose,  and  in  full  expectancy  of  success,  the  whole  coast  of  the 
"New  World  on  each  side,  from  Newfoundland,  as  visited  by  the 
"  Cabots,  on  the  northeast,  and  thence  south  around  the  whole 
"  sweep  of  the  Mexican  Gulf,  and  the  Caribbean  Sea,  around  South 
"America,  and  up  the  Pacific  to  Behring  Straits,  was  searched  and 
"researched  with  diligence.  Men,  says  Humboldt,  could  not 
"accustom  themselves  tc  the  idea  that  the  continent  extended 
"uninterruptedly  from  such  high  southern  to  such  high  northern 
"latitudes.  *  *  * 

"  The  continuous  search  for  the  strait,  made  under  the  orders  and 
"  direct  superintendence  of  Cortez,  at  length  resulted  in  putting  an 
"end  to  all  hope  in  that  direction.  Charles  V,  had  urged  the  search. 
"In  a  letter  from  Valladolid,  in  1533,  he  enjoined  the  most  careful 
"  inquiry  *  for  the  passage  which  would  connect  the  eastern  and 
"western  shores  of  the  New  World,  and  shorten  by  two-thirds  the 
"route  from  Cadiz  to  Cathay  ;  '  and  Cortez,  in  his  reply,  expressed 
"the  highest  hopes  of  success.  '  It  would  render  the  King  of  Spain 
"master  of  so  many  kingdoms  that  he  might  call  himself  Lord  of  the 
"World  '.  The  instructions  of  the  court  and  the  subsequent  letters 
"  of  the  conquerer,  as  well  as  the  correspondence  of  men  of  science, 
"were  always  full  of  the  idea.  '  For  the  proximity  of  the  two  oceans 
"in  certain  parts  of  the  Isthmus  having  been  this  time  ascertained, 
*'it  could  not  yet  be  believed  that  nature  had  worked  on  a  plan  so 
"  apparently  repugnant  to  the  interests  of  humanity  as  to  interpose, 
"  through  the  whole  length  of  the  new  continent,  such  a  barrier  to 
"  communication  between  the  great  seas '.  The  conqueror  of 
"  Mexico  never  abandoned  this  leading  object  in  his  reverses,  nor 
"forgot  it  in  his  triumphs. 

"  He  ascertained  that,  instead  of  the  outlet  before  supposed  to 
"  exist  towards  the  north,  the  unknown  ocean  was  locked  up  in  the 
"  arms  of  the  mighty  continent.  The  hope  of  finding  a  short  passage 
"  across  the  Isthmus  thus  perished. 

"  The  Spanish  historian,  Gomara,  seems  first  to  have  proposed  an 
"artificial  opening  through  the  Isthmus.  In  1551,  representing, 
"doubtless,  the  general  feeling  in  Spain  and  in  the  New  World,  he 
"  urged  on  Philip  II.  the  union  of  the  oceans  by  three  of  the  same 
"  routes  which  at  this  day  are  still  before  the  world,  Tehuantepec, 
"  Nicaragua  and  Panama  ;  and  had  Spain  remained  what  she  had 
"been  under  Charles  V.,  what  had  been  in  vain  sought  from  nature 
"might  have  been  in  some  degree  supplied  by  man.  Her  men  of 
"science  had  urged  the  work,  and  all  Spain  had  awakened  to  it. 


"  *  It  is  true,'  said  Gomara  to  the  Emperor,  *  that  mountains 
"  obstruct  these  passes,  but  if  there  are  mountains,  there  are  also 
"  hands.  Let  but  the  resolve  be  made,  there  will  be  no  want  of 
"  means  ;  the  Indies,  to  which  the  passage  will  be  made,  will  supply 
"  them.  To  a  King  of  Spain,  with  the  wealth  of  the  Indies  at  his 
"  command,  when  the  object  to  be  attained  is  the  spice  trade,  what 
"  is  possible  is  easy.' 

"  Since  the  glorious  age  of  Balboa,  among  the  people,  indeed,  the 
"  project  of  a  canal  was  in  every  one's  thoughts.  In  the  very  wayside 
"  talks,  in  the  inns  of  Spain,  when  a  traveler  from  the  New  World 
"  chanced  to  pass,  after  making  him  tell  of  the  wonders  of  Lima 
"  and  Mexico,  of  the  death  of  the  Inca  Atahualpa,  and  the  bloody 
"  defeat  of  the  Aztecs,  and  after  asking  his  opinion  of  El  Dorado, 
"  the  question  was  always  about  the  two  oceans,  and  what  great 
"  thing  would  happen  if  they  could  succeed  in  joining  them/' 

For  nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty  years,  governments,  companies 
and  individuals  have  made  surveys  and  plans,  and  brought  forward 
projects  of  canals  and  railroads  to  overcome  this  important  obstacle 
to  the  commerce  of  the  world.  The  celebrated  Portuguese  navi- 
gator Altono  Galva,  in  1550,  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  subject  and 
suggested  several  different  lines  for  crossing  the  Isthmus.  One  of 
the  earliest  exploits  of  Nelson  was  an  attack  on  the  port  of  San  Juan 
in  Nicaragua  in  1779,  with  the  purpose  of  controlling  communication 
between  the  two  oceans.  King  Charles  III.  of  Spain  sent  an  explor- 
ing expedition  to  the  Isthmus  under  Manuel  Galistro  in  1780.  Hum- 
boldt  studied  the  subject  on  the  Isthmus  itself,  and  strongly  urged  a 
transit-way.  All  the  Central  American  Republics,  immediately  after 
securing  their  independence,  brought  forward  projects  for  inter- 
oceanic  communication.  In  1826,  the  Mexican  government  ordered 
the  survey  of  the  Tehuantepec  Isthmus  to  be  made  by  Gen.  Orbe- 
gozo.  Several  of  the  Central  American  republics  gave  concessions 
and  contracts  to  individuals  and  companies  of  different  nations, 
looking  to  the  construction  of  canals  or  railroads.  The  United 
States  government  has  sent  several  expeditions,  under  charge  of 
naval  and  army  officers  and  civil  engineers,  to  examine  and  survey 
various  routes  across  the  Isthmus.  Mr.  Frederick  M.  Kelly,  a 
wealthy  New  York  merchant,  induced  at  first  by  the  statements  of 
Humboldt  in  regard  to  the  feasibility  of  a  canal  through  Darien,  spent 
a  large  fortune  in  explorations  of  the  Isthmus.  He  not  only  sent  sev 
eral  parties  there  under  prominent  engineers,  but  also  appeared 
before  leading  men  of  Europe  and  their  governments,  and,  the  gov- 


8 


eminent  of  the  United  States,  asking  their  assistance  in  solving  this 
great  problem.  Some  of  the  most  skillful  naval  officers  and  army 
engineers  have,  under  the  United  States  government,  made  surveys 
of  many  parts  of  the  Isthmus. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OPINIONS  OF  AMEKICAN  STATESMEN  DURING  THE  LAST  SIXTY  YEABS  UPON  THE 
VAST  IMPORTANCE  TO  THIS  COUNTRY  OF  AN  INTEROCEANIC  COMMUNICA- 
TION, AND  UPON  THE  NECESSITY,  RIGHT  AND  POLICY  OF  THIS  GOVERN- 
MENT TO  ENCOURAGE  AND  PROTECT  ANY  ISTHMIAN  CROSSING  BETWEEN 
THE  TWO  OCEAN&  • 

In  1826,  Henry  Clay,  Secretary  of  State,  in  a  letter  of  instructions 
to  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  States  to  the  Congress  of 
Panama,  said  : 

"  A  cut  or  canal  for  purposes  of  navigation  somewhere  through 
"  the  isthmus  that  connects  the  two  Americas,  to  unite  the  Pacific 
"and  Atlantic  Oceans  will  form  a  proper  subject  of  consideration 
"  by  the  Congress.  That  vast  subject,  if  it  should  ever  be  accom- 
"  plished,  will  be  interesting  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  to  all  parts  of 
"  the  world.  But  to  this  continent  will  probably  accrue  the  largest 
"  amount  of  benefit,  from  its  execution  ;  to  Colombia,  Mexico,  the 
"  Central  Republic,  Peru,  and  the  United  States,  more  than  to  any  of 
"  the  other  American  nations.  What  is  to  redound  to  all  America 
"  should  be  effected  by  common  means  and  united  resources,  and 
"  should  not  be  left  to  the  unassisted  efforts  of  any  one  power.  In 
"  the  present  limited  state  of  our  information  as  to  the  practicability 
"  and  the  probable  expense  of  the  object,  it  would  not  be  wise  to 
"  do  more  than  to  make  some  preliminary  arrangements.  The  best 
"  route  will  be  most  likely  found  in  the  territory  of  Mexico  or  that 
"  of  the  Central  Republic.  *  *  * 

"  You  will  inquire  particularly  as  to  what  has  been  done,  or  may 
"  have  been  designed  by  Spain,  or  by  either  of  the  new  States,  and 
"  obtain  all  other  information  that  may  be  within  your  reach  to  solve 
"  this  interesting  problem.  You  will  state  to  the  ministers  of  the 
"  other  American  powers  that  the  Government  of  the  United  State's 
"  takes  a  lively  interest  in  the  execution  of  the  work  and  will  see  with 


9 

"  peculiar  satisfaction  that  it  lies  within  the  compass  of  reasonable 
"  human  efforts." 

In  1835,  President  Jackson  commissioned  Mr.  Charles  Biddle  to 
go  to  the  Isthmus  and  study  the  subject  of  interoceanic  communica- 
tions. In  1839,  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Roads  and 
Canals  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Mr.  C.  F.  Mercer,  presented 
a  report  on  the  subject,  urging  negotiations  for  an  interoceanic  cross- 
ing. In  the  beginning  of  his  report  he  said  : 

"  It  is  obvious  that  if  the  contemplated  communication  from  sea 
"  to  sea  be  practicable,  the  nation  which  has  the  right  to  appropriate 
"  its  exclusive  use  to  itself  might  lawfully  control  the  richest  com- 
*'  merce  of  the  world,  or  prescribe  to  all  other  nations  the  terms  upon 
"  which  they  be  admitted  to  share  its  enjoyment.  The  policy  is  not 
41  less  apparent  which  should  prompt  the  United  States  to  co-operate 
"  in  this  enterprise  liberally  and  efficiently.  *  *  If  other  con- 

"  siderations  did  not  prompt  this  decision,  it  should  suffice  for  its 
"  confirmation  to  contrast  the  continuous  voyage  of  the  same  vessel 
"  across  the  two  oceans,  divided  by  the  Isthmus,  with  the  trans-ship- 
""  ment  of  a  heavy  cargo  between  vessels  of  equal  burden,  and  the 
15  intervening  expense  of  land  transportation,  double  port  duties, 
';  and  commissions,  added  to  the  damage  of  shifting  and  exposing 
4t  very  valuable  commodities  to  waste  and  depredation.  The  United 
"  States,  whose  territory  extends  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
""  cannot  but  regard  with  solicitude  any  eterprise  which,  if  prac- 
41  ticable,  will  so  greatly  approximate  their  eastern  and  western 
J'  frontiers." 

In  1847,  during  the  negotiations  between  the  two  Republics, 
which  finally  resulted  in  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  of  1848, 
James  Buchanan,  then  Secretary  of  State,  sent  the  following 
instructions  to  Nicholas  P.  Trist,  the  Commissioner  of  the  United 
States  at  the  City  of  Mexico  :  "Instead  of  fifteen  millions  of  dol- 
"  lars  stipulated  to  be  paid  by  the  fifth  article  for  the  extension  of 
41  our  boundary  over  New  Mexico  and  Upper  and  Lower  Cali- 
"  fornia,  you  may  increase  the  amount  to  any  sum  not  exceeding 
4'  thirty  millions  of  dollars,  payable  by  instalments  of  three  millions 
"  per  annum,  provided  the  right  of  passage  and  transit  across  the 
"  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  secured  to  the  United  States  by  the 
"  eighth  article  of  the  project,  shall  form  a  part  of  the  treaty." 

In  1850,  Daniel  Webster,  while  Secretary  of  State,  said  in  a  letter 
to  the  United  States  Minister  at  Mexico  :  "  The  American  public  at 
"large  has  a  great  and  obvious  interest  in  the  Tehuantepec  pas- 


10 

"  sage."*  In  another  letter,  in  1851,  he  said  :  4<  No  one  can  fail  to 
*'  see  how  exceedingly  important  this  communication  would  be  to 
"  the  Government  of  Mexico.  It  proposes  to  give  her  a  practical 
"  highway  from  sea  to  sea.  It  opens  to  her  a  communication  on  the 
"  one  side  and  the  other  with  the  eastern  and  western  worlds.  It 
"  gives  her  access  to  the  markets  of  all  nations  and  makes  her,  in 
*'  short,  a  central  point  of  the  commerce  of  modern  times." 

In  1851,  President  Fillmore  said,  in  his  message  to  Congress  : 

"  In  negotiating  upon  this  important  subject,  this  Government  has 
"had  in  view  one  and  only  one  object.  That  object  has  been  and 
"  is  the  construction  or  attainment  of  a  passage  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
"  the  shortest  and  the  best  for  travelers  and  merchandise,  and  equally 
"  open  to  all  the  world.  It  has  sought  to  obtain  no  territorial  acqui- 
"  sition  nor  any  advantages  peculiar  to  itself,  and  it  would  see  with 
"  the  greatest  regret  that  Mexico  should  oppose  any  obstacle  to  the 
"  accomplishment  of  an  enterprise  which  promises  so  much  conven- 
"  ience  to  the  whole  commercial  world  and  such  eminent  advantages 
"  to  Mexico  herself.  Impressed  with  these  sentiments  and  these  con- 
"  victions  the  Government  will  continue  to  exert  all  proper  efforts 
"  to  bring  about  the  necessary  arrangement  with  the  Republic  of 
"  Mexico  for  the  speedy  completion  of  the  work." 

That  illustrious  statesman,  Lewis  Cass,  in  an  official  letter,  while 
Secretary  of  State,  in  1857,  said  : 

"  The  proximity  of  the  Isthmus  "  (Tehuantepec)  "  to  our  shores,  the 
"  salubrity  of  the  climate,  the  adaptness  of  the  ground  for  the  con- 
"  struction  of  the  railroad,  and  the  great  diminution  of  distance  in 
"  comparison  with  traveled  routes  between  our  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
"  possessions,  all  conspire  to  point  it  out  as  far  preferable  to  any 
"  other  route." 

In  1858,  he  stated  the  principles  on  which  any  interoceanic 
transit-way  must  rest  as  far  as  this  country  is  concerned,  "  what  the 
"  United  States  want  in  Central  America,  next  to  the  happiness  of 
"  its  people,  is  the  security  and  neutrality  of  the  interoceanic  routes 
u  which  lead  through  it." 

The  vast  importance  of  this  subject  was  fully  appreciated  by  that 
great  statesman,  William  H.  Seward,  who  used  the  following  lan- 
guage in  regard  to  it  : 

"  During  the  past  three  hundred  years,  statesmanship  and  humani. 

*  Sen.  Exec.  Doc  97,  Thirty-second  Congress,  First  Session. 


11 

"  tarianism  have  combined  with  ever  increasing  diligence  and  effort 
"  to  find  the  means  of  effecting  an  enterprise  which  is,  perhaps,  the 
"  only  one  that  ever  has  commanded  universal  assent  and  com- 
"  mended  itself  to  the  desire  of  all  mankind.  Every  advance  of 
"  modern  civilization  in  Europe,  the  establishment  of  every  new 
"  nation  in  America,  every  opening  of  any  secluded  Asiatic  state 
"  and  nation  that  has  occurred,  has  increased  the  zeal  and  the  energy 
"  of  the  friends  of  progress  in  favor  of  a  canal  across  the  American 
"  Isthmus." 

President  Hayes,  in  1880,  in  a  special  message  to  Congress, 
stated  : 

"  An  interoceanic  canal  across  the  American  Isthmus  will  essen- 
"  tially  change  the  geographical  relations  between  the  Atlantic  and 
"  Pacific  coasts  of  the  United  States,  and  between  the  United  States 
"  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  will  be  the  great  ocean  thoroughfare 
"  between  our  Atlantic  and  Pacific  shores,  and  virtually  a  part  of  the 
"  coast  line  of  the  United  States.  Our  merely  commercial  interest 
"in  it  is  greater  than  that  of  all  other  countries,  while  its  relations  to 
"  our  power  and  prosperity  as  a  nation,  to  our  means  of  defense,  our 
"  unity,  peace  and  safety,  are  matters  of  paramount  concern  to  the 
"  people  of  the  United  States." 

Ex-Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Hon.  Wm.  Windom,  while  a  mem- 
ber of  the  U.  S.  Senate,  said  in  an  address  to  that  body,  February 
28th,  1881  : 

"  Bordering  upon  the  Gulf  on  the  north  lie  the  great  States  of 
"  Texas,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama  and  Florida.  North  of 
"  these  lies  the  mighty  empire  drained  by  the  Mississippi  River, 
"  while  to  the  east  are  the  Atlantic  States,  stretching  from  Florida  ta 
"  Maine.  On  the  Pacific  are  the  States  of  California,  Oregon  and 
"Washington  Territory,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
"  stretches  a  domain  whose  magnificence  is  the  pride  of  every  Amer- 
"  ican.  Obstructing,  embarrassing  and  burdening  the  commerce 
"  between  these  great  sections  of  the  Union,  lies  this  narrow  strip  of 
"  land.  *  *  *  *  To  avoid  it,  1,200,000  tons  of  wheat  raised  in 
"  California  and  Oregon  last  year  were  compelled  to  seek  a  Euro- 
"  pean  market  by  a  costly  and  tedious  voyage  of  fourteen  thousand 
"miles  around  Cape  Horn.  Even  the  exchange  of  productions  be- 
"  tween  our  own  Atlantic  and  Pacific  States  must  be  made  by  the 
"same  circuitous,  expensive  and  dangerous  route,  or  else  sustain 
"  the  heavy  burdens  imposed  for  railway  transportation  across  the 


12 

"  continent.  The  commerce  of  all  the  leading  nations  is  in  like  man- 
"  ner  obstructed  and  burdened.  The  time  has  come  when  this  bar- 
"  Her  is  to  be  removed.  The  wonder  is  that  it  has  been  permitted 
"  to  remain  so  long." 

The  importance  to  this  country  of  an  interoceanic  communica- 
tion was  very  forcibly  presented  in  a  letter  to  the  Minister  of  the 
United  States  at  London,  May  8th,  1882,  by  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Hon.  James  G.  Elaine  : 

"  The  possessions  of  the  United  States  upon  the  Pacific  coast  are 
"  imperial  in  extent  and  of  extraordinary  growth.  Even  at  their 
~"  present  stage  of  development  they  would  supply  the  larger  part  of 
"  the  traffic  which  would  seek  the  advantage  of  the  canal.  The 
"  States  of  California  and  Oregon,  and  the  Territory  of  Washington, 
"  larger  in  area  than  England  and  France,  produce  for  export  more 
"  than  a  ton  of  wheat  for  each  inhabitant,  and  the  entire  freights  de- 
"  manding  water  transportation  eastward,  already  enormous,  are 
"  augmenting  each  year  with  an  accelerating  ratio.  While  the  popu- 
•"  lation  and  products  of  the  Pacific  slope  are  thus  increasing  upon  a 
"  vast  scale,  the  railway  system  connecting  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  with 
""  the  interior  and  with  the  Great  Lakes  is  being  rapidly  extended, 
"  thus  affording  additional  facilities  for  enlarging  the  commerce  that 
"  must  seek  the  coast  line  to  the  Pacific,  of  which  the  projected 
"  canal  at  Panama  will  form  a  part,  and  be  as  truly  a  channel  of  com- 
•"  munication  between  the  Eastern  and  far  Western  States  as  our  own 
"  transcontinental  railways.  It  is  the  perception  of  this  domestic 
"  function  of  the  long-sought  water-way  between  the  two  seas  that 
"border  the  Republic,  which  has  caused  the  project  to  be  regarded 
"as  of  vital  importance  by  this  government.  The  history  of  the 
"enterprise  is  marked  from  the  outset  by  the  numerous  expeditions 
"  which  have  from  time  to  time  been  sent  out  by  the  United  States 
"  at  large  expense  to  explore  the  various  routes,  and  thus  facilitate 
"  the  work  when  the  time  should  be  ripe  and  the  vast  capital  be 
"forthcoming  for  the  undertaking." 

In  a  message  of  President  Arthur,  occurs  the  following  statement 
on  this  subject  : 

''  The  establishment  of  water  communication  between  the  Allan- 
"  tic  and  Pacific  Coasts  of  the  Union  is  a  necessity,  the  accomplish- 
"  ment  of  which,  however,  within  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
"  is  a  physical  impossibility.  While  the  enterprise  of  our  citizens 
'has  responded  to  the  duty  of  creating  means  of  speedy  transit  by 
"  rail  between  the  two  oceans,  these  great  achievements  are  inade- 


13 


"  quate  to  supply  a  most  important  requisite  of  national  union  and 
"  prosperity.  For  all  maritime  purposes,  the  States  upon  the  Pacific 
"  are  more  distant  from  those  upon  the  Atlantic  than  if  separated  by 
"  either  ocean  alone.  Europe  and  Africa  are  nearer  New  York,  and 
"  Asia  is  nearer  to  California  than  are  these  two  great  States  to  each 
"  other  by  sea.  Weeks  of  steam  voyage,  or  months  under  sail,  are 
"  consumed  in  the  passage  round  the  Horn  with  the  disadvantage  of 
"  traversing  tempestuous  waters  or  risking  the  navigation  of  the  Straits 
"  of  Magellan.  A  nation  like  ours  cannot  rest  satisfied  with  such  a 
"  separation  of  its  mutually  dependent  members.  We  possess  an 
"ocean  border  of  considerably  over  ten  thousand  miles  on  the  At- 
lantic and  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and,  including  Alaska,  of  some  ten 
"  thousand  miles  on  the  Pacific.  Within  a  generation  the  western 
"  coast  has  developed  into  an  empire,  with  a  large  and  rapidly  grow- 
"  ing  population,  with  vast  but  partially  developed  resources.  At 
"  the  present  rate  of  increase,  the  end  of  the  century  will  see  us  a 
"  commonwealth  of,  perhaps,  nearly  a  hundred  million  inhabitants, 
"  of  which  the  west  should  have  a  considerably  larger  and  richer 
"  proportion  than  now. 

*  *  *  * 

"  From  a  purely  commercial  point  of  view  the  completion  of  such 
"  a  waterway  opens  a  most  favorable  prospect  for  the  future  of  our 
"  country.  The  nations  of  the  Pacific  Coast  of  South  America  will 
"by  its  means  be  brought  into  closer  connection  with  our  Gulf 
"  States.  The  relation  of  these  American  countries  to  the  United 
"  States  is  that  of  a  natural  market  from  which  the  want  of  direct 
"  communication  has  hitherto  practically  excluded  us.  By  piercing 
"  the  Isthmus  the  heretofore  insuperable  obstacles  of  time,  sea,  and 
"  distance  disappear,  and  our  vessels  and  productions  will  enter  upon 
"  the  world's  competitive  field  with  a  decided  advantage  of  which 
"  they  will  avail  themselves.  When  to  this  is  joined  the  large  coast- 
"  ing  trade  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  States,  which  must 
"  necessarily  spring  up,  it  is  evident  that  this  canal  affords  even 
"  alone  an  efficient  means  of  restoring  our  flag  to  its  former  place  on 
"  the  seas.  Such  a  domestic  coasting  trade  would  arise  immediately, 
"  for  even  the  fishing  vessels  of  both  seaboards  which  now  lie  idle  in 
"  the  winter  months,  could  then  profitably  carry  goods  between  the 
"eastern  and  western  States. 

"  The  political  effect  of  the  canal  will  be  to  unite  closer  the  States 
"  now  depending  upon  railway  corporations  for  all  commercial  and 
"  personal  intercourse,  and  it  will  not  only  cheapen  the  cost  of  trans- 
"  portation,  but  will  free  individuals  from  the  possibility  of  unjust 


14 

*  discrimination.  It  will  bring  European  grain  markets  of  demand 
*'  within  easy  distance  of  our  Pacific,  and  will  give  to  the  manufac- 
"  turers  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  economical  access  to  the  cities  of 
"  China,  thus  breaking  down  the  barrier  which  separates  the  princi- 
"pal  manufacturing  centres  of  the  United  States  from  the  markets 
"  of  the  vast  population  of  Asia,  and  placing  the  Eastern  States  of 
"  the  Union  for  all  purposes  of  trade  midway  between  Europe  and 
"  Asia.  In  point  of  time  the  gain  for  sailing  vessels  would  be  great, 
"  amounting,  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  to  a  saving  of 
"  seventy-five  days  ;  to  Hong  Kong  of  twenty-seven  days  ;  to  Shang- 
"  hai  of  thirty-four  days,  and  to  Callao  of  fifty-two  days." 

An  examination  of  the  documents  in  the  archives  of  the  United 
States  Government  will  show  that  it  has  not  only  been  the 
unanimous  policy  of  our  greatest  statesmen,  but  the  earnest  and 
deep-seated  sentiment  of  our  people,  that  European  countries 
should  not  colonize  any  part  of  North  or  South  America,  and  should 
not  exclusively  control  the  Isthmian  crossing,  whether  it  be  by  rail- 
road, canal  or  ship-railway.  The  occupation  of  the  Panama  Isthmus 
by  an  armed  force  last  spring  was  made  by  the  United  States  in 
virtue  of  a  treaty  concluded  with  New  Granada  (now  the  United 
States  of  Colombia,)  in  1848.  The  express  object  of  this  treaty 
was  to  enable  the  United  States,  and  not  an  European  power,  to  pro- 
tect the  Panama  Railway.  The  explicit  wording  of  Article  XXXV. 
of  this  treaty  shows  how  important  the  subject  was  considered  then, 
especially  when  it  is  remembered  that  our  Government  has  uniformly 
and  strictly  adhered  to  the  policy  of  non-interference  in  the  affairs 
of  other  countries.  It  is  as  follows  : 

"And  in  order  to  secure  to  themselves  the  tranquil  and  constant 
"  enjoyment  of  these  advantages,  and  as  an  especial  compensation 
"for  the  said  advantages,  and  for  the  favors  which  they  have 
"acquired  by  Articles  IV.,  V.  and  VI.,  of  this  treaty,  the  United 
"  States  guarantee  positively  and  efficaciously  to  New  Granada,  by 
"  the  present  stipulation,  the  perfect  neutrality  of  the  before  named 
"isthmus,  with  the  view  that  the  free  transit  from  one  to  the  other 
"  sea  may  not  be  interrupted  or  embarrassed  in  any  future  time 
"while  this  treaty  exists." 

The  only  way  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  danger  of  European 
complication  on  the  American  isthmus  is  for  this  Government  to 
unite  with  Mexico  in  the  encouragement  and  protection  of  an 
isthmian  route  at  Tehuantepec. 

It  is  not  a  sentiment  only  but  a  deep-seated  policy  established  by 


15 


treaty  precedent  and  the  declaration  of  American  statesmen  of  all 
parties,  that  any  isthmian  crossing  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
shall  be  absolutely  neutral  and  safe  from  interference  ;  the  transit- 
way  to  be  held  inviolate  for  the  benefit  of  the  commerce  of  all 
nations. 

The  great  importance  of  an  interoceanic  communication,  the 
advantages  of  the  Tehuantepec  Route,  the  established  practica- 
bility of  the  Ship-Railway  and  the  broad  and  statesmanlike  policy 
to  be  followed  by  his  administration,  are  clearly  expressed  by 
President  Cleveland  in  his  Message  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  Dec.  8th,  1885,  as  follows  :— 

"The  interest  of  the  United  States  in  a  practicable  transit  for  ships 
across  the  strip  of  land  separating  the  Atlantic  from  the  Pacific  has 
been  repeatedly  manifested  during  the  last  half  century. 

"  My  immediate  predecessor  caused  to  be  negotiated  with  Nicara- 
gua a  treaty  for  the  construction,  by  and  at  the  sole  cost  of  the  United 
States,  of  a  canal  through  Nicaraguan  territory,  and  laid  it  before 
the  Senate.  Pending  the  action  of  that  body  thereon,  I  withdrew 
the  treaty  for  re-examination.  Attentive  consideration  of  its  pro- 
visions leads  me  to  withhold  it  from  re-submission  to  the  Senate. 

"Maintaining,  as  I  do,  the  tenets  of  a  line  of  precedents  from 
Washington's  day,  which  proscribe  entangling  alliances  with  foreign 
States,  I  do  not  favor  a  policy  of  acquisition  of  new  and  distant  ter- 
ritory or  the  incorporation  of  remote  interests  with  our  own. 

"The  laws  of  progress  are  vital  and  organic,  and  we  must  be  con- 
scious of  that  irresistible  tide  of  commercial  expansion  which,  as  the 
concomitant  of  our  active  civilization,  day  by  day,  is  being  urged 
onward  by  those  increasing  facilities  of  production,  transportation 
and  communication  to  which  steam  and  electricity  have  given  birth  ; 
but  our  duty  in  the  present  instructs  us  to  address  ourselves  mainly 
to  the  development  of  the  vast  resources  of  the  great  area  committed 
to  our  charge,  and  to  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  of  peace  within  our 
own  borders,  though  jealously  alert  in  preventing  the  American 
hemisphere  from  being  involved  in  the  political  problems  and  com- 
plications of  distant  governments.  Therefore,  I  am  unable  to  recom- 
mend propositions  involving  paramount  privileges  of  ownership  or 
right  outside  of  our  own  territory,  when  coupled  with  absolute  and 
unlimited  engagements  to  defend  the  territorial  integrity  of  the  State 
where  such  interests  lie.  While  the  general  project  of  connecting 
the  two  oceans  by  means  of  a  canal  is  to  be  encouraged,  I  am  of 
opinion,  that  any  scheme  to  that  end  to  be  considered  with  favor 
should  be  free  from  the  features  alluded  to. 

"The  Tehuantepec  route  is  declared,  by  engineers  of  the  highest 
repute  and  by  competent  scientists,  to  afford  an  entirely  practicable 
transit  for  vessels  and  cargoes,  by  means  of  a  ship-railway,  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  The  obvious  advantages  of  such  a  route,  if 
feasible,  over  others  more  remote  from  the  axial  lines  of  traffic 


16 

between  Europe  and  the  Pacific,  and,  particularly,  between  the  val- 
ley of  the  Mississippi  and  the  western  coast  of  North  and  South 
America,  are  deserving  of  consideration. 

**  Whatever  highway  may  be  constructed  across  the  barrier  dividing 
the  two  greatest  maritime  areas  of  the  world  must  be  for  the  world's 
benefit,  a  trust  for  mankind,  to  be  removed  from  the  chance  of  domi- 
nation by  any  single  Power,  nor  become  a  point  of  invitation  for 
hostilities  or  a  prize  for  warlike  ambition.  An  engagement  combin- 
ing the  construction,  ownership  and  operation  of  such  a  work  by 
this  Government  with  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  for  its  pro- 
tection, with  the  foreign  State  whose  responsibilities  and  rights  we 
would  share,  is,  in  my  judgment,  inconsistent  with  such  dedication 
to  universal  and  neutral  use,  and  would,  moreover,  entail  measures 
for  its  realization  beyond  the  scope  of  our  National  polity  or  pres- 
ent means. 

"  The  lapse  of  years  has  abundantly  confirmed  the  wisdom  and 
foresight  of  those  earlier  Administrations  which,  long  before  the 
conditions  of  maritime  intercourse  were  changed  and  enlarged  by  the 
progress  of  the  age,  proclaimed  the  vital  need  of  interoceanic  transit 
across  the  American  Isthmus  and  consecrated  it  in  advance  to  the 
common  use  of  mankind  by  their  positive  declarations  and  through 
the  formal  obligation  of  treaties.  Toward  such  realization  the  efforts 
of  my  Administration  will  be  applied,  ever  bearing  in  mind  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  it  must  rest,  and  which  were  declared  in  no  uncer- 
tain tones  by  Mr.  Cass,  who,  while  Secretary  of  State,  in  L858, 
announced  that  '  What  the  United  States  want  in  Central  America, 
next  to  the  happiness  of  its  people,  is  the  security  and  the  neutrality 
of  the  interoceanic  routes  which  lead  through  it.' 

"  The  construction  of  three  transcontinental  lines  of  railway  all 
in  successful  operation,  wholly  within  our  territory  and  uniting  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  oceans,  has  been  accompanied  by  results  of 
a  most  interesting  and  impressive  nature,  and  has  created  new  con- 
ditions, not  in  the  routes  of  commerce  only,  but  in  political 
geography,  which  powerfully  affect  our  relations  toward,  and  necessa- 
rily increase  our  interests  in  any  trans-isthmian  route  which  may  be 
opened  and  employed  for  the  ends  of  peace  and  traffic,  or,  in  other 
contingencies,  for  uses  inimical  to  both.  Transportation  is  a  factor 
in  the  cost  of  commodities  scarcely  second  to  that  of  their  produc- 
tion, and  weighs  as  heavily  upon  the  consumer.  Our  experience 
already  has  proven  the  great  importance  of  having  the  competition 
between  land  carriage  and  water  carriage  fully  developed,  each  act- 
ing as  a  protection  to  the  public  against  the  tendencies  to  monopoly 
which  is  inherent  in  the  consolidation  of  wealth  and  power  in  the 
hands  of  vast  corporations.  These  suggestions  may  serve  to 
emphasize  what  I  have  already  said  on  the  score  of  the  necessity  of 
a  neutralization  of  any  interoceanic  transit ;  and  this  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  making  the  uses  of  the  route  open  to  all  nations 
and  subject  to  the  ambitions  and  warlike  necessities  of  none." 


17 


CHAPTER  III. 

COMMERCIAL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  FACTS  SHOWING  THE  PARAMOUNT  IMPORTANCE 
OF,  AND  IMPERATIVE  NECESSITY  FOR,  AN  ISTHMIAN  CROSSING. 

The  London  "  Times"  of  August  21,  1884,  treated  this  subject  so 
broadly  that  we  give  the  paragraph  entire  that  relates  to  it  : 

"  Looking  at  the  ship-railway  project  from  a  broad  and  general 
"point  of  view,  there  can  be  liltle  doubt  that  it  is  one  which  is 
"  fraught  with  great  results.  This  will  be  better  realized  when  it  is 
"  remembered  that  the  American  isthmus  separates  about  100,000,000 
"  of  the  most  enterprising,  industrious  and  enlightened  people  on  the 
"face  of  the  earth,  inhabiting  the  North  Atlantic  coasts  of  Europe 
"  and  America,  from  600,000,000  who  inhabit  the  Orient  and  the 
"  islands  of  the  Pacific.  It  is  true  that  the  sailing  distances  which 
"  separate  England  from  India,  China  and  other  Oriental  countries, 
"have  been  greatly  reduced  by  the  Suez  Canal ;  but  these  distances 
"  are  almost  insignificant  when  compared  with  those  which  the  ship 
"  railway  would  annihilate.  For  instance,  the  greatest  saving  effected 
"by  the  Suez  Canal  between  London  and  Calcutta  is  about  4,500 
"  statute  miles,  whereas  the  sailing  distance  by  the  ship  railway  from 
"  London  to  every  port  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  America  will 
•"be  lessened  by  nearly  twice  this  great  distance,  or  about  8,250  miles. 
"  The  Suez  Canal  brought  London  and  Canton  about  3,500  miles 
"  nearer  together  by  sea.  The  ship  railway  would  save  more  than 
"  three  times  that  distance  between  the  great  American  metropolis 
"  and  every  port  in  British  Columbia.  The  American  isthmus  and 
"the  Cordilleras  of  North  America  constitute  a  narrow  but  almost 
"impassable  barrier  to  the  interchange  of  the  manufactures  and  pro- 
ductions of  40,000,000  of  people  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and 
"  Atlantic  States,  not  only  with  those  of  10,000,000  of  their  country - 
"  men  to  the  west  of  them,  but  with  the  others  on  the  islands  and 
"  coasts  of  the  Pacific  who  are  seemingly  their  nearest  neighbors. 
"The  ship  railway  would  give  to  these  descendants  of  the  British 
"  Isles  a  sea  route  between  their  Atlantic  and  Pacific  ports  scarcely 
"  a  thousand  miles  longer  than  the  railway  between  New  York  and 
"  San  Francisco,  and  it  would  give  to  the  vast  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
"  a  gateway  equivalent  to  the  discharge  of  its  mighty  river  directly 
"into  the  Pacific.  A  work  designed  to  confer  such  great  benefits 
"on  the  commerce  of  the  world  should  commend  itself  with  especial 
"  force  to  this  country,  which  is  carrying  more  than  70  per  cent,  of 
"that  commerce." 

The  writer,  in  an  address  before  the  Franklin  Institute  of  Phila- 
delphia, December  28,  1884,  gave  in  detail  the  following  commercial 
reasons  for  an  interoceanic  crossing  : 

"It  is  necessary  now  to  glance  at   the   internal   commerce. of  the 


18 

"  United  States,  because  from  that  we  can  estimate  what  its  foreign 
"  commerce  would  be,  if  the  barriers  now  obstructing  it  were 
"removed,  and  if  the  immense  surplus  products,  agricultural,  manu- 
facturing and  mineral,  could  be  shipped  at  reasonable  expense  and 
"in  reasonable  time,  to  foreign  countries  needing  our  surplus  pro- 
"ductions.  During  the  year  1883,  the  railroads  of  the  United 
"  States  transported  over  four  hundred  million  tons  of  freight,  valued 
"at  $12,000,000,000.  These  goods  if  placed  for  transportation  in 
"one  freight  train,  carrying  fifteen  tons  to  the  car,  would  require  a 
"  a  train  175,000  miles  long,  or  seven  times  the  circumference  of  the 
"  earth.  In  addition  to  this  rail  transportation  there  should  be  added 
"many  millions  of  steamboat  and  coastwise  tonnage,  probably  equal 
"  to  fifty  per  cent,  of  that  transported  by  rail.  While  we  are  carry- 
"  ing,  year  by  year,  these  immense  amounts  of  freight,  the  whole 
"  foreign  commerce  of  Europe  is  less  than  ten  billions  of  dollars  in 
"  value. 

"  The  Mississippi  Valley  has  a  commercial  internal  business, 
"by  river  and  by  rail,  of  over  four  billions  of  dollars.  Galveston, 
"  the  seaport  of  Texas,  has  a  tributary  net  work  of  railroads  more 
"than  six  thousand  miles  in  length.  The  increase  of  commerce  of 
"the  countries  west  of  the  United  States,  that  is,  those  bordering  on 
"  the  Pacific,  has  been  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  in  five  years  ; 
"but  on  account  of  the  impossibility  of  reaching  this  business  we 
"have  less  than  four  per  cent,  of  it — the  remainder  going  to 
"  Europe,  via  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  Suez  Canal  and  Cape  Horn. 

"  Our  Pacific  Coast — California,  Oregon  and  Washington  Terri- 
"tory,  is  especially  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  cereals,  particularly 
"  wheat.  The  salubrity  of  the  climate  and  the  richness  of  the  soil 
"  reduce  the  cost  of  its  production  to  a  minimum.  But  on  account  of 
"  the  great  length  of  the  voyage  by  which  the  wheat  and  the  flour  of 
"  the  Pacific  Coast  reach  Liverpool  and  other  markets  of  the  Old 
"World,  it  must  compete,  under  great  disadvantages,  with  the  wheat 
"raised  in  India  and  Australia.  A  voyage  of  sixteen  thousand 
"  miles  is  necessary  to  place  California  wheat  in  the  Liverpool 
"  market.  The  freight  per  ton  by  sea  is  about  $15.00.  To  haul  it 
"  across  the  continent  by  the  transcontinental  railway  lines,  would 
"cost  $25.00  to  $35.00  a  ton  to  New  York  alone,  saying  nothing  of 
"  the  transatlantic  voyage." 

Another  view  of  the  same  subject  was  presented  in  an  address,  by 
the  writer,  before  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  August  26th,  1885,  as  follows  : 


19 

"  Forty-five  millions  of  our  people  live  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, and  produce  nearly  all  the  manufactured  goods  of  the  country^ 
which  amount  annually  to  the  enormous  total  of  over  five 
billion  dollars  ($5,000,000,000)  in  value.  Not  being  able  to  reach 
economically  or  promptly  the  countries  that  have  need  of  these 
manufactured  articles,  we  export  but  two  per  cent,  of  them,  and 
therefore  we  cannot  compete  wUh  those  countries  of  Europe  which 
also  manufacture  them,  and  which  by  the  Suez  Canal  are  placed  much 
nearer  to  those  markets.  Special  attention  is  called  to  the  unfortunate 
position  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  its  seaports  on  the  Gulf  ; 
with  only  eight  hundred  miles  between  them  and  the  Pacific,  they 
cannot  reach  its  markets  except  by  a  voyage  around  Cape  Horn, 
which  absolutely  prevents  all  commercial  intercourse  with  them. 
Our  whole  eastern  and  southern  coast  can  send  its  products 
Eastward,  but  to  the  Westward  is  an  impassable  barrier,  and 
Westward  are  six  hundred  million  people  offering  their  rich 
treasures  to  commerce  and  civilization.  The  dwellers  on  the  west 
of  South  America,  Mexico  and  our  own  Pacific  coast,  although 
seemingly  our  nearest  neighbors,  are  practically  removed  farther 
from  us  than  the  East  Indies  are  by  way  of  the  Suez  Canal. 

"  The  over-sea  commerce  of  the  globe  is  now  upward  of  fourteen 
billion  doll'ars,  and  is  increasing  at  the  rate  of  seventy-five  per  cent, 
every  decade  ;  so  that,  if  ten  years  ago  it  was  important  to  solve  the 
isthmian  problem,  it  is  vastly  more  important  to-day,  and  will  be 
still  more  so  ten  years  hence." 

There  is  an  imperative  necessity  for  a  shorter  and  less  expensive 
maritime  route  than  now  exists  from  our  Pacific  coast  to  the  Atlan- 
tic markets  of  this  country  and  Europe.  The  Suez  Canal  has  given 
to  India  such  an  immense  advantage  in  the  exportation  of  cereals  to 
Europe,  that  this  important  product  of  the  Pacific  coast  will  soon  be 
without  an  available  market ;  but  8000  miles  saved  in  distance,  and 
two  months  and  a  half  in  time,  will  more  than  restore  the  advantage 
we  had  before  the  opening  of  the  Suez  route.  Another  important 
and  much  needed  factor  in  the  development  of  the  Pacific  coast 
States  is  the  immigration  of  a  hardy,  industrious  and  assimilating 
European  population.  A  short  and  inexpensive  maritime  route  for 
passengers  from  European  ports  to  San  Francisco  and  Portland  will 
induce  agricultural  emigrants  to  seek  the  Western  coast,  from  which 
they  are  now  practically  excluded  by  the  excessive  cost  of  transpor- 
tation. The  prosperity  of  the  Pacific  States  will  also  tend  to  the 
development  of  that  great  railway  system  which  penetrates  to 


20 

the  heart  of  the  continent.  Water-ways  parallel  with  railways  have 
not  checked  but  have  actually  promoted  the  development  of  the 
latter.  The  all-water  route  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard  from  the  Great 
Lakes  has,  no  doubt,  tended  to  the  development  of  the  Great 
Trunk  Line  systems  that  are  parallel  to  these  water-ways. 
The  Mississippi  River,  the  great  Water  Trunk  Line  north  and 
south,  has  stimulated  and  developed  the  railroad  systems  that 
parallel  it  from  St.  Louis,  Chicago  and  St.  Paul  to  New  Orleans, 
and  the  same  is  true  in  reference  to  Long  Island  Sound  and  the 
Atlantic  Coast.  A  short  all-water  route  from  the  Hudson  to  the 
Golden  Gate  will  develop  and  enrich  the  whole  country  bordering 
on  the  two  oceans,  and  increase  the  business  of  the  transcontinental 
railways,  and  enrich  them.  The  opening  of  the  Gulf  ports  to  the 
Pacific  markets  will  benefit  the  whole  interior  country  also,  and 
even  to  the  remote  lakes  of  the  north  and  the  enterprising  cities 
upon  their  shores,  will  be  felt  the  pulsations  of  the  new  life  which 
a  maritime  transit-way  at  the  Mexican  Isthmus  will  infuse  into  the 
commerce  and  industries  of  our  entire  country.  The  joining  of 
the  10,000  miles  of  Atlantic  coast  line  with  the  10,000  miles  on  the 
Pacific  will  multiply  the  coastwise  commerce  of  the  United  States, 
now  already  immense,  beyond  the  expectations  of  the  most  sanguine 
advocate  of  an  isthmian  crossing. 


23 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SUPERIOR      ADVANTAGES     OF     THE     TEHUANTEPEC       ISTHMUS  —  COMMERCIAL, 
CLIMATIC,   CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  STRATEGIC. 

It  will  be  seen  by  an  examination  of  the  map  of  the  world 
(Plate  II.)  that  the  American  isthmus  is  about  fifteen  hundred  miles 
in  length,  in  an  air  line,  and  that  the  distance  from  the  Tehuantepec 
isthmus  to  Panama  is  about  twelve  hundred  miles,  and  to  Nicaragua 
about  eight  hundred.  It  will  also  be  noticed  that  the  Tehuantepec 
Isthmus  is  nearest  to  North  America.  It  may  be  generally  assumed 
that  that  crossing  of  the  American  isthmus  which  is  nearest  to  the 
axial  line  of  commerce  will  offer  the  shortest  routes.  That  line  may 
be  assumed  to  be  drawn  through  Hong  Kong,  San  Francisco,  New 
York  and  Liverpool.  The  table  of  distances  on  pages  63-65,  will  show 
how  much  shorter  is  the  route  via  Tehuantepec  on  nearly  all  of  the 
main  lines  of  commerce.  The  principal  purpose  of  this  country  in 
opening  interoceanic  communication  for  our  merchant  marine  is  to 
form  a  closer  commercial  union  of  the  ten  thousand  miles  of  our 
eastern  with  the  ten  thousand  miles  of  our  western  coast  ;  to 
shorten  the  immense  distance  of  sixteen  thousand  miles  that  must 
be  traversed  by  the  commerce  of  our  Pacific  coast  on  its  voyage  to 
New  York  or  Liverpool,  and  to  obtain  the  shortest  and  most  econo- 
mical route  for  freight  and  passengers  from  the  Old  World,  as  well 
as  from  our  own  Atlantic  coast,  to  our  Pacific  States  and  British 
Columbia.  A  crossing  at  Tehuantepec  for  ships  will  accomplish 
this  better  than  any  other  location  can  possibly  do.  For  an  ordinary 
sized  steamer  it  will  save,  over  the  Panama  route,  at  least  one 
thousand  dollars  on  every  trip  ;  and,  on  account  of  the  longer  time 
required  to  pass  the  ship  through  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  the  saving 
over  that  route  will  be  nearly  as  great.  Commodore  Shufeldt, 
United  States  Navy,  in  1871,  in  an  official  report  of  his  survey  of 
the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  said : 

"  Each  Isthmus  rises  into  importance  as  it  lies  nearer  to  the 
"  centre  of  American  commercial  interests,  and  the  intrinsic  value 
"  of  this  eminently  national  work  ought  to  be  based  upon  the 
"  inverse  ratio  of  the  distance  from  that  centre." 

The  Tehuantepec  Isthmus  has  important  advantages  in  the  supe- 
rior nautical  conditions  which  prevail  there.  Commander  Selfridge, 
whose  great  familiarity  with  the  coasts  of  the  American  Isthmus 
gives  weight  to  his  opinion,  stated  as  follows,  in  an  official  report  on 
the  Darien  Ship  Canal  : 

"  Lying  near  the  equator,  but  generally  a  little  north  of  it,  is  a 
"  belt  some  four  or  five  degrees  wide,  of  calms,  rains  and  light  baf- 
"  fling  winds,  that  separates  the  wind  systems  of  the  north  Pacific 
'*  from  those  of  the  south.  Its  average  northern  limit  may  be  placed 
"  at  8°  north  and  its  southern  at  3Q  north,  but  both  are  very  vari- 


24 

"able.  This  is  often  spoken  of  as  a  'calm  belt,'  which  term  is 
"  calculated  to  mislead  one  as  to  the  nature  of  the  weather  to  be 
"  expected  within  these  limits.  Neither  does  the  term,  '  region  of 
"  variable  winds,'  appear  satisfactory,  as  it  does  not  express  the 
"  peculiar  character  of  the  weather.  *  Doldrums '  seems  to  be  the 
11  correct  word,  for  although  it  may  be  as  some  say,  '  uncouth,'  it  is 
"  the  only  single  word  that  conveys  to  the  mind  of  the  seaman  all 
"  that  can  be  expressed  by  saying  '  a  region  of  calms,  squalls,  light 
"  baffling  winds,  and  storms  of  wind  and  rain.'  "  * 

That  eminent  authority  on  the  physical  geography  of  the  sear 
Lieut.  M.  F.  Maury,  says,  after  describing  the  winds  and  currents  on 
each  side  of  the  American  Isthmus  :  "  You  will  observe  at  a  glance 
"  that  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  or  Darien,  is,  on  account  of  these 
"  winds  and  calms,  in  a  purely  commercial  point  of  view,  the  most  out 
"  of  the  way  place  of  any  part  of  the  Pacific  coast  of  inter-tropical 
"  America."  f 

He  stated  in  a  letter  written  in  1866,  as  follows  : 

"  I  have  spoken  about  the  calm  belt  about  the  equator — Panama 
"  is  within  its  range.  *  *  *  It  is  difficult  to  convey  to  one  who 
"  has  never  experienced  these  calms  an  idea  of  the  obstinacy  with 
"  which  they  vex  navigation.  We  are  all  familiar  with  calms  at  sea 
"  which  last  for  a  few  hours  or  even  a  day,  but  here  they  last  for 
"  days  and  weeks  at  a  time.  I  have  known  vessels  going  to  or  from 
"  Panama  to  be  detained  by  them  for  months  at  a  time.  *  *  *' 
"  On  one  occasion  the  British  admiralty  wishing  to  send  one  of  their 
"  sailing  vessels  into  the  Arctic  Ocean  from  Panama  in  time  to  save 
"  the  season  had  her  towed  by  a  steamer  through  this  calm  belt  and 
"  carried  seven  hundred  miles  out  to  sea  before  she  could  find  a 
"breeze.  *  *  * 

"  These  remarks  apply  to  the  approach  and  departure  by  sea  to  or 
"  from  the  Pacific  terminus  of  any  route  across  the  Isthmus  of 
"  Panama  or  Darien,  and  even  with  greater  force  to  the  Atrato  and 
others  on  the  South  American  side  of  Panama.  In  short,  the  results 
of  my  investigations  into  the  winds  and  currents  of  the  sea  and 
their  influence  upon  the  routes  of  commerce,  authorize  the  opinion 
which  I  have  expressed  before  and  which  I  here  repeat,  namely,  if 
nature,  by  one  of  her  convulsions,  should  rend  the  continent  of 
America  in  twain  and  make  a  channel  across  the  Isthmus  of 
"  Panama  or  Darien  as  deep,  as  wide,  and  as  free  as  the  Straits  of 
"  Dover,  it  would  never  become  a  commercial  thoroughfare  for  sail- 
"  ing  vessels,  saving  the  outward-bound  and  those  that  could  reach 
"  it  with  leading  winds. "J 

*  House  Mia.  Doc.  No.  113,  42d  Cong.,  3d  Sess.,  p.  231. 

f  From  testimony  of  Lieut.  Collins,  U.  S.  N.,  before  House  Com.  on  Inter- 
oceanic  Canals,  July  28,  1880,  page  41  of  testimony. 
\  Mis.  Doc.  No.  66,  46th  Congress,  3d  Session,  page  41. 


25 

Capt.  Silas  Bent,  the  well  known  nautical  expert,  stated  the  fol- 
lowing before  the  Merchants'  Exchange  of  St.  Louis  : 

"  Mere  statements  of  the  difference  in  miles  is  a  very  inadequate 
"  measure  of  the  difference  in  time  that  would  be  occupied  by  sail- 
"  ing  vessels  in  making  these  several  passages,  and  when  we  consider 
"  that  three-fourths  of  the  ocean  commerce  of  the  world  is  carried  in 
"  sailing  vessels,  you  can  see  what  an  important  factor  this  question 
"  of  sailing-time  becomes  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  before  us. 

"  The  northeast  trade  winds  which  extend  across  the  Atlantic  are 
"  so  broken  and  interrupted  when  they  encounter  the  West  India 
"  Islands,  that  they  never  penetrate  the  Caribbean  Sea  ;  but  the 
"  northwest  portion  of  them,  however,  do  extend  into  the  Gulf  of 
"  Mexico,  and  often  so  far  down  as  to  reach  well  toward  Tehuante- 
"  pec,  so  that  whilst  in  the  Gulf  winds  are  always  found,  yet  the 
"  Caribbean  Sea  remains  a  region  of  almost  relentless  calm. 

"  Nor  is  this  all,  for  the  mountain  ranges,  extending  the  length 
"  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  through  Central  America,  offer  a 
"  still  more  formidable  barrier  to  the  passage  of  these  winds,  thus 
"  throwing  them  still  higher  into  the  upper  regions  of  the  atmo- 
"  sphere,  and  extending  these  calms  far  out  into  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
"  on  the  parallel  of  Panama,  with  lessening  width,  for  fifteen  or 
"  eighteen  hundred  miles  to  the  northwest,  along  the  coast  of  Cen- 
"  tral  America. 

"  This  whole  region  of  calms,  both  in  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  in  the 
"  Pacific  Ocean,  is  so  well  known  to  navigators  that  sailing  vessels 
"  always  shun  it,  if  possible,  though  they  may  have  to  run  a  thousand 
"  miles  out  of  their  way  to  do  so. 

"  This  absence  of  wind  of  course  leaves  this  vast  area  exposed  to 
"  the  unmitigated  heat  of  a  torrid  sun,  except  when  relieved  momen- 
"  tarily  by  harassing  squalls  in  the  dry  season,  and  by  the  deluging 
"  rainfalls  of  the  wet  season.  With  these  meterological  facts  in 
"  view,  let  us  now  suppose  that  the  Lesseps  Canal  at  Panama,  and 
"  the  Eads  Railway  at  Tehuantepec  are  both  completed  and  in  run- 
"  ning  order  ;  then  let  us  start  two  sailing  ships,  of  equal  tonnage  and 
"equal  speed  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  with  cargo  for 
"  China,  one  to  go  by  the  way  of  the  Panama  Canal,  and  the  other 
"  by  the  way  of  the  Tehuantepec  Railway,  and  I  venture  to  affirm 
"  that  by  the  time  the  Panama  vessel  has  cleared  the  canal  and  floats 
"  in  the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  the  Tehuantepec  vessel  will  have  scaled 
"  the  Isthmus  and  be  well  on  to  the  meridian  of  the  Sandwich 
"  Islands  ;  and  that  before  the  former  vessel  can  worry  through  the 
"  fifteen  or  more  hundred  miles  of  windless  ocean  before  her,  to 
"  reach  the  trade  winds  to  the  westward  of  Tehuantepec,  the  latter 
"  will  have  sped  five  thousand  miles  on  her  way  across  the  Pacific, 
"  and  be  fully  thirty  days  ahead  of  her  adversary.  For  it  is  a  fact 
"  worth  mentioning  here,  that  the  strength  of  the  northeast  trade 
"  winds  in  the  Pacific,  as  well  as  the  maximum  strength  of  the  north- 
"  ern  portion  of  the  great  equatorial  current  in  that  ocean,  are  both 
"  found  on  or  near  the  parallel  of  latitude  of  Tehuan.tepec,  the 


26 

*'  former  blowing  with  an  impelling  force  to  the  westward  of  ten  or 
"  twelve  miles  an  hour,  and  the  latter  with  a  following  strength  of 
"  three  or  four  miles  per  hour." 

It  has  been  stated  by  those  who  advocate  an  interoceanic  crossing 
at  Panama,  that  it  really  makes  very  little  difference  to  the  commerce 
of  the  world,  whether  the  route  is  favorable  or  not  to  sailing  ves- 
sels, for  the  alleged  reason  that  steamships  are  rapidly  taking  their 
place.  The  facts  given  in  the  report  of  our  Commissioner  of 
Navigation,  Mr.  Jarvis  Patten,  for  1884,  pp.  22  and  23,  controvert 
this  statement  • 

"  The  American  merchant  marine  of  the  present  time,  although  it 
""  has  not  in  later  years  kept  pace  with  that  of  Great  Britain,  is  sec- 
"  ond  only  to  hers. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  disadvantages  that  American  shipbuilders 
"  have  had  to  contend  against,  the  high  character  of  their  vessels 
"  has  been  maintained..  Our  wooden  ships  are  probably  the  best 
"  and  safest  vessels  afloat.  *  *  * 

'We  are  apt  to  talk  as  if  we  had  no  ships,'  said  Hon.  W.  P. 
"  Frye,  in  a  speech  to  the  Senate  April  30,  1884,  '  and  you  would 
'judge  from  an  ordinary  discussion  in  Congress  that  there  was  no 
''  such  thing  as  an  American  ship  to-day.  Why,  Mr.  President,  we 
*  have  the  finest  coastwise  trade  in  size,  in  ships,  in  material,  in  men, 
'in  discipline,  in  comfort,  in  convenience,  in  prosperity  that  there  is 
4  in  the  whole  world,'  and  the  Senator  might  with  equal  truth  have 
"  said  the  same  of  the  fine  fleet  of  sailing  ships  engaged  in  the  Cali- 
"  fornia  wheat  trade.  When  the  guano  trade,  which  gave  employ- 
"  ment  to  a  large  number  of  ships  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  col- 
"  lapsed  with  the  outbreak  of  the  Peru-Chili  war,  our  vessels  went 
"  into  the  grain  trade  that  had  been  springing  up  between  our  Pacific 
"  ports  and  Europe.  This  trade,  which  has  since  grown  to  great  im- 
41  portance,  employs  the  largest  and  best-equipped  fleet  of  wooden 
"  ships  in  the  world.  *  *  *  * 

:'  The  wood  sailing  ships  of  this  country  are  thought  to  surpass 
"  any  others  afloat  in  point  of  safety,  and  it  is  a  mistake  to  accept 
"  the  opinion  that  the  day  of  wooden  ships  is  entirely  past.  Two- 
"  thirds  of  the  tonnage  of  the  world  is  probably  still  composed  of 
"wooden  vessels,  while  their  numerical  preponderance  is  much 
"  greater,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  for  screw  steamers  and  many 
"  other  kinds  of  craft  iron  possesses  certain  advantages. 
***** 

"  In  round  numbers  the  total  of  our  sea-going  marine  was  on  June 
"30,  1884:  Vessels,  6,636;  tons,  3,700,404.  Of  this  number, 
"422,  of  601,186  tons,  were  steamers,  and  the  rest  sailing  vessels.'' 

The  Report  of  the  Commissioner  for  1885,  shows  an  increase 
during  the  year  of  60  sailing  vessels,  and  a  decrease  of  67  steam- 
ships. 


27 

An  early  transit-way  for  ships  at  Tehuantepec  will  do  much  to 
solve  the  important  problem  now  before  the  country  so  prominently, 
of  promoting  our  merchant  marine  and  the  shipping  interests  of  the 
United  States.  It  will  assist  very  materially  in  restoring  us  to  our 
proper  place  among  the  commercial  nations  of  the  world.  The  im- 
portance of  these  interests  was  eloquently  stated  by  the  Hon.  Nel- 
son Dingley,  Jr.,  in  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  April 
25,  1882,  in  which  he  used  the  following  language  : 

"  The  efforts  of  England  to  control  the  ocean  carrying  trade  ought 
41  to  arouse  the  American  Congress  and  people  to  the  importance  of 
*'  our  shipping  interests.  This  is  a  question  which  affects  the 
""  interior  as  much  as  the  seaboard,  the  West  as  much  as  the  East, 
"  the  South  as  much  as  the  North.  It  is  not  a  local,  but  a  national 
"  question. 

u  It  involves  the  inquiry  as  to  whether  we  will  save  to  our  own 
"  people  the  ship-building  industry,  which  employs  ten  thousands  of 
41  workmen,  and  distributes  millions  of  dollars  ;  whether  we  shall 
"  retain  a  due  share  of  $100,000,000  which  we  annually  pay  for  ocean 
4t  transportation,  with  all  the  avenues  of  employment  which  it  would 
"  open  ;  whether  we  shall  open  up  wider  markets  for  American  pro- 
"  ducts  in  China,  Japan,  South  America  and  the  Orient." 

According  to  Mr.  Patten,  we  can  build  wooden  sailing  ships 
cheaper  and  better  than  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  But  it  is  cer- 
tain that  an  interoceanic  crossing  at  Panama  (because  of  "  the  Dol- 
drums "  or  calm  belt)  will  not  only  prevent  their  construction  in  the 
future,  but  will  drive  from  the  seas  most  of  the  sailing  ships  we  now 
possess,  if  we  do  not  open  up  a  route  for  them  at  Tehuantepec. 

It  is  important,  considering  the  unhealthiness  of  several  parts  of 
the  Isthmus,  that,  other  things  being  equal,  that  location  should  be 
selected  which  has  the  greatest  climatic  advantages.  The  testimony 
in  favor  of  the  superiority  in  this  respect  of  the  Tehuantepec  Isth- 
mus is  overwhelming.  Mr.  J.  J.  Williams,  whose  valuable  work  on 
the  Tehuantepec  Isthmus  is  considered  an  authority  everywhere, 
from  his  long  experience  as  a  civil  engineer  on  the  Isthmus,  states  as 
follows  on  page  172  of  his  work  entitled  "  The  Isthmus  of  Tehuan- 
tepec :"- 

"  The  conviction  in  the  minds  of  those  engaged  in  drawing  up  this 
41  report,  and  one  founded  on  a  residence  upon  the  spot,  is,  that  the 
41  climate  of  the  Isthmus  is  a  mild  and  healthy  one,  favorable  to 
41  longevity,  and  free  from  many  diseases  incidental  to  more  tem- 
4t  perate  latitudes.  The  health  of  those  engaged  on  the  survey  was 
""  unusually  good  during  their  entire  stay  ;  and  although  frequently  by 
4t  accidents  wetted  to  the  skin  and  remaining  in  wet  clothes  the  whole 
"  day,  and  this  occurring  on  successive  days,  with  limited  food  at 
4t  long  intervals,  yet  none  suffered  in  consequence — a  strong  proof 
4t  that  their  health  was  due  to  the  favorable  climate. 

"  Compared   with   other  places,  selected   for  forming  a  junction 


28 

"  between  the  two  oceans,  this  Isthmus  has  peculiar  advantages. 
"  With  less  alluvial  land  at  the  sea-level,  it  is  more  healthy  than  San 
"  Juan  de  Nicaragua,  and  from  its  more  northern  latitude,  its  mean 
"  annual  temperature  is  less  than  that  of  Nicaragua  or  of  Panama. 
"  The  latter  place  has,  indeed,  a  temperature  and  climate  truly  tor- 
"rid,  and  partaking  more  of  the  character  of  a  continent  than  of  an 
"  island,  which  latter  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  position  of  this  por- 
"  tion  of  Mexico." 

His  statement  is  supported  by  the  report  of  Dr.  Kovaleski,  who 
was  surgeon  of  the  party.  The  following  are  extracts  from  his 
voluminous  report  : 

"  I  took  particular  care  to  inquire  among  the  inhabitants,  what 
"  were  the  diseases  from  which  they  mostly  suffered,  and  how 
u  strangers  settling  among  them  were  affected,  and  I  ascertained 
"  beyond  doubt,  that  not  only  Minatitlan,  but  the  whole  plain  of  the 
"  Coatzacoalcos  River,  wherever  inhabited,  was  a  remarkably  healthy 
"  country.  *  * 

"  I  met  at  Minatitlan  several  individuals  who  formed  a  part  of  the 
"  French  colony,  and  who  had  resided  there  for  twenty- two  years  ; 
"  they  all  assured  me  that  they  enjoyed  uninterrupted  health.  The 
"  appearance  of  the  natives  proves  the  country  to  be  healthy,  and 
"  our  small  party  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  sickness  during  its 
"stay.  *  * 

"  The  plain  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  River,  flat  and  low,  with  an 
"  extremely  fertile  alluvial  soil,  covered  with  thick  forests,  intersected 
"  by  many  rivers  and  here  and  there  subject  to  inundation,  although 
"  the  least  healthy,  yet  enjoys  a  high  degree  of  salubrity,  and  no  fears 
"  need  be  entertained,  as  proved  by  the  experience  of  the  French 
"  emigrants,  for  those  who  may  in  future  settle  permanently  in 
"  this  region,  and  much  less  so  for  those  who  may  cross  it  as  trav- 
"  ellers. 

"  The  region  of  hills  and  mountains  is  as  healthy  as  the  most 
"  salubrious  portions  of  Europe  ;  full  of  romantic  scenery,  it  is  even 
"  now  highly  attractive,  and  will,  in  progress  of  time,  when  inhabited 
"  by  an  enterprising  and  laborious  population,  become  one  of  the 
"  most  beautiful  spots  on  the  earth. 

"  Last,  comes  the  plain  of  Tehuantepec,  nearly  as  healthy  as  the 
u  hilly  region,  although  warmer,  presenting  all  the  characteristics  of 
"  a  healthy  tropical  climate. 

"  All  these  three  regions  together  form  a  broad  surface  of  country 
"  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  coast  of  the  Pacific,  of  a  great 
"  variety  of  resources  and  of  remarkable  healthiness,  a  feature 
"  peculiar  to  the  Isthmus,  as  the  lands  on  both  of  its  sides  are  very 
'  unhealthy  ;  such  as  Vera  Cruz  and  Tabasco  on  the  Gulf,  Acapulco, 
'  Huatulco,  and  the  coast  of  Guatimala  on  the  Pacific  shore.  This 
*  peculiar  and  exclusive  salubrity  of  the  Isthmus,  is,  in  my  opinion, 
'  chiefly  due  to  its  configuration,  which  forms  as  it  were  a  gate, 
'  walled  on  both  sides  by  heavy  masses  of  mountains,  through  which 


29 

"  pass  currents  of   air,  that  render  the  country  they  traverse  per- 
"  manently  salubrious." 

Mr.  Martin  Van  Brocklin,  who  spent  two  years  on  the  Isthmus  as 
Chief  Engineer  of  the  Tehuantepec  Railroad  and  one  year  as  Resi- 
dent Engineer  of  the  Ship-Railway,  states  in  an  official  report  to  the 
President  of  this  Company  as  follows  : 

"  The  country  through  which  the  line  passes  has  a  fine  salubrious 
"  climate,  with  the  exception  of  the  immediate  valley  of  the  Coatza- 
"  coalcos  River,  where  malarial  fevers  are  prevalent  for  a  portion  of 
"  the  year.  By  reason  of  the  peculiar  topographical  formation  of 
"the  Isthmus,  there  is  an  almost  constant  interchange  of  air  currents 
"  between  the  two  Oceans.  The  inhabitants  are  a  robust  and  health- 
"  ful  people." 

The  writer's  own  observations  on  the  Isthmus,  and  the  experience 
of  engineering  parties  sent  there  by  him,  confirm  the  opinions  just 
given.  These  engineering  parties,  composed  mostly  of  unacclimated 
young  men  from  the  northern  portions  of  the  United  States,  went  to 
the  Isthmus  in  March,  at  the  beginning  of  the  tropical  rainy  season, 
worked  continuously  for  seventeen  months  in  the  woods  and  on  the 
table-lands  and  plains  of  the  Isthmus,  exposed  to  hardships  and 
unprotected  from  the  weather ;  no  case  of  sickness  occurred  among 
them,  and  they  came  back  to  the  United  States,  after  completing 
their  work,  in  robust  health. 

In  proof  of  the  above  is  offered  an  extract  from  the  report  of  Mr. 
Deming  J.  Thayer,  civil  engineer  in  charge  of  our  surveys  for  ten 
months,  and  who  has  spent  several  years  on  the  isthmus  and  in  the 
states  of  Colombia  : 

"  Hitherto  it  has  been  erroneously  supposed  that  engineering  par- 
"  ties  could  not  remain  in  the  field  during  the  rainy  season ;  that  the 
"  increase  in  hardships  would  result  in  sickness  among  the  men 
"  employed,  and  this,  in  connection  with  the  time  lost  when  raining, 
"  would  render  desirable  progress  impossible.  Our  experience 
"  during  an  entire  and  unusually  hard  rainy  season  disproves  this 
"  supposition.  No  sickness  showed  itself  among  assistants  or  men, 
"  little  or  no  time  was  lost,  and  progress  was  nearly  as  rapid  as 
"  during  the  dry  season." 

Another  advantage  of  great  importance  is  the  good  harbors  that 
exist  on  each  side  of  the  Isthmus,  the  entrances  to  which  can  with 
inexpensive  works  be  deepened  to  any  required  depth.  On  the 
Atlantic  or  Gulf  side  of  the  Isthmus  there  is  a  natural  land-locked 
basin,  which  has  a  depth  of  from  forty  feet  to  sixty  feet.  It  is  sev- 
eral miles  in  length,  of  ample  width,  and  in  which  an  immense  fleet 
can  lie  at  anchor  in  safety.  On  the  Pacific  side  two  beautiful  lakes, 
comprising  two  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles  with  depths  of  twenty- 
two  feet,  connect  with  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  a  natural  passage-way. 
The  deep  water  of  the  Ocean  approaches  within  twelve  hundred 


30 


feet  of  the  shore  line.  Mr.  Williams  states  as  follows,  in  reference 
to  the  harbor  on  the  Atlantic  side  : 

"  As  soon  as  the  bar  is  crossed  and  the  ascent  of  the  river  com- 
"  mences,  it  widens  and  deepens,  and  at  seven  miles  from  the  Gulf, 
"  the  lead  shows  a  depth  of  forty  feet,  which  is  preserved  for  some 
"  distance.  *  *  The  superior  advantages  offered  by  this 

"  stream  as  a  safe  and  convenient  harbor  for  ships,  early  attracted 
"the  attention  of  the  Spanish  conquerors.  Cortez,  in  his  official 
"  despatches  to  the  Emperor,  Charles  V,  speaks  of  the  importance 
"  of  this  river  as  furnishing  the  best  harbor  to  be  found  on  the  Gulf 
"  coast  of  Mexico." 

The  voluminous  report  of  Mr.  Williams  gives  abundant  evidence 
that  the  country  is  well  adapted  for  the  construction  of  a  Ship-Rail- 
way, and  that  the  materials  are  conveniently  at  hand  for  con- 
structing the  works  ;  and  the  report  of  Mr.  Martin  Van  Brocklin, 
under  whose  immediate  direction  the  first  complete  instrumental 
survey  across  this  isthmus  was  made,  gives  conclusive  evidence 
that  the  railway  can  be  built  on  solid  ground,  and  that  excellent 
materials  are  found  near  at  hand.  The  following  quotations  are 
from  his  report  to  the  President  of  this  Company  : 

"  Through  a  distance  of  thirty-five  miles  from  Minatitlan,  the  line 
"  is  in  an  extensive  alluvial  plain,  composed  in  all  its  lower  portions 
"  of  a  heavy  tenacious  clay.  In  the  higher  portions,  and  in  the  small 
"  ridges  that  are  encountered,  a  clay  loam  is  found,  with  an  occa- 
"  sional  deposit  of  sand. 

"  The  firm  and  tenacious  character  of  the  material  upon  which 
"  the  road-bed  will  rest,  and  of  which  it  will  be  composed,  will 
"  secure  the  railway  from  any  injurious  effects  of  water.  Leaving 
"  this  plain,  the  line  enters  an  undulating  table-land,  extending  to  a 
"  point  fifty-five  miles  from  Minatitlan,  where  it  leaves  the  valley  of 
"  the  Coatzacoalcos  River  and  follows  a  succession  of  broad  valleys 
"  formed  by  the  Jumuapa,  Sarabia,  Malatengo  and  Chichihua  rivers  ; 
"  between  these  valleys  there  are  extensive  table-lands,  with  no  high 
"  or  prominent  dividing  summit  between  them,  but  they  are  inter- 
"  spersed  with  isolated  hills  and  detached  ranges  from  one  to  five 
"  hundred  feet  in  height,  the  whole  forming  an  extensive  interior 
"  basin,  having  a  gentle  inclination  towards  the  summit,  and 
"  bordered  on  its  eastern  and  western  sides  by  irregular  mountain 
"  ranges,  spurs  of  the  main  Cordillera  that  runs  through  the  entire 
"  continent,  and  which  makes  at  this  point  one  of  the  most  marked 
"  depressions  to  be  found  in  its  whole  length.  From  this  basin  the 
"  line  passes  through  a  valley  formed  by  a  stream  called  the  Pozo  de 
"  Agua,  to  the  plains  of  Tarifa,  an  elevated  level  plateau  six  miles  in 
"  extent.  Crossing  these  plains,  the  line  reaches  the  Portillo  de 
"  Tarifa,  the  lowest  and  also  the  most  accessible  of  the  many  passes 
"through  this  general  depression  in  the  main  mountain  chain. 
"  From  the  Portillo  de  Tarifa  the  line  descends  to  the  Pacific  plains 
"  (reaching  them  118  miles  from  Minatitlan)  by  a  uniform  grade, 


31 

"  following    a    succession    of  valleys   through  the  intervening  foot- 

*  hills.     These   valleys   are    generally    narrow,    having    very    abrupt 

slopes  on  their  sides.     Fortunately  the  line  can  be  kept  near  the 

"  bottom  of  the  valleys,  avoiding  any  difficult  or  questionable  class- 

of   construction.       The  heaviest    excavations   will    be    in    cutting 

through  spurs  of  the  hill  sides,  or  through  divides  between  adjacent 

valleys.     Across  the  Pacific  plains  the  line  can  be  given  almost  any 

desired  direction,  the  surface  being  remarkably  even  and  uniform 

in  character."     *     *     *     "  Many  varieties  of  valuable  timber  are 

found,  very  durable  in  character,  and  suitable  for  either  permanent 

"  or  temporary  work  in  construction,  throughout  the  entire  line,  with 

"  the  exception  of  about  twenty  miles  at  each  end  of  it. 

"  Good  building  stone  is  found  near  the  line  at  short  intervals 
"  after  leaving  the  valley  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  River.  Granite, 
"  limestone,  sandstone  and  quartzite  are  among  the  varieties  of  stone 
"  available  for  purposes  of  construction. 

"  The  principal  rock  cuttings  to  be  encountered  near  the  summit 
"  will  be  in  a  clay  slate  formation,  limestone  appearing  at  a  lower 
"  elevation,  and  granite  in  the  higher  ranges  on  each  side  of  the 
"  line."  *  *  *  "  A  careful  instrumental  survey  of  the  bar  at  the 
"  mouth  of  the  river  shows  that  there  is  at  ordinary  tide,  fifteen 
"  feet  of  water  over  it.  Surveys  and  soundings  made  during  the 
"  last  thirty  years  give  conclusive  evidence  that  this  bar  has  changed 
"  very  little  during  that  time.  Borings  to  the  depth  of  twenty-six 
"  feet  encountered  no  other  material  than  sand  and  clay,  much  the 
"  larger  portion  being  sand  ;  a  stratum  of  clay  was  found  at  the 
"  bottom  of  the  borings.  This  bar  has  a  striking  resemblance  to 
"  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  South  Pass  of  the  Mississippi  River,. 
"  except  that  it  has  less  than  one-fourth  the  distance  across  it,  from 
"  twenty-six  feet  depth  of  water  on  the  inside  to  the  same  depth  on 
"  the  outside,  and  it  can  be  deepened  by  the  same  methods  that 
"  gave  such  remarkable  results  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
"  River." 

Another  important  consideration  is  the  strategic  advantages  which- 
the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  has  over  any  other  possible  route.  It 
is  located  nearest  to  the  United  States  ;  it  is  in  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  the  strongest  republic,  next  to  the  United  States,  on  the 
American  continent,  and  connected  with  us  not  only  by  close 
political  and  social  ties,  but  also  commercially  by  lines  of  railroads 
built  and  building  from  our  country  into  and  through  it,  and  by 
several  steamship  lines  to  its  ports  in  the  Gulf  and  on  the  Pacific. 

The  Atlantic  terminus  of  the  ship-railway  is  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,. 
whose  approaches  from  the  Atlantic  at  the  Florida  Straits  and  the 
Straits  of  Yucatan,  can  be  easily  defended  by  our  navy  in  case  of 
war  ;  enabling  us  to  maintain  uninterrupted  communication  between 
all  of  our  Gulf  ports  and  the  Ship-Railway,  even  though  every  Atlantic 
port  should  be  blockaded  and  the  enemy's  cruisers  infest  the  high 
seas.  The  harbor  at  the  Gulf  can  be  thoroughly  defended  by 
inexpensive  fortifications  on  the  high  lands  which  rise  immediately 


32 


above  the  entrance  channel,  and  by  torpedoes.  Equally  favorable 
conditions  for  defense  exist  on  the  Pacific.  From  these  facts  it  is 
evident  that,  if  Mexico  and  the  United  States  unite  to  protect  this 
transit  way,  no  other  power  or  powers  could  successfully  interfere 
with  it. 

In  a  pamphlet  written  by  Mr.  Alexander  D.  Anderson,  on  the 
Tehuantepec  Ship-Railway,  in  1884,  on  page  11,  the  strategic 
advantages  are  also  stated  as  follows  :  "  The  railway  system  of  the 
"  United  States,  which  now  amounts  to  125,000  miles,  has,  during  the 
"  past  year,  been  extended  to  the  City  of  Mexico  by  the  completion 
"  of  the  Mexican  Central  road  from  El  Paso  to  the  City  of  Mexico. 
"  A  second  line,  the  Mexican  National,  is  already  half  complete 
"  between  Laredo  and  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  three  other  lines  are 
"  projected  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  the  Mexican  capital.  These  five 
"  lines  are  to  be  prolonged  southward  to  Tehuantepec  by  a  line 
"  already  projected,"  and  now,  in  1885,  being  built  by  the  Mexican 
Government,  "  thereby  placing  that  Isthmus  within  easy  reach  of 
"the  troops  of  the  two  sister  republics,  should  they  ever  have 
"  occasion  to  defend  it.  *  *  * 

"  By  water,  also,  the  Isthmus  is  equally  accessible  to  the  troops  of 
"  Mexico  and  the  United  States  by  steamers  through  an  inland  sea 
"  which  may  easily  be  closed  at  the  two  passes  between  the  Atlantic 
"  and  the  Gulf.  These  remarkable  advantages  as  a  defensive  point 
"  may  be  seen  by  a  glance  at  the  Map  of  the  World.  It  is  in  this 
"  respect  in  marked  contrast  with  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  or  Nicara- 
"  gua  which  would  be  exposed  to  attack." 


CHAPTER  V. 

THB  SHIP- RAILWAY,  ITS  PLANS  AND  PRACTICABILITY. 

Many  plans  and  projects  have  been  brought  forward  for  transport- 
ing vessels  through  or  over  the  American  Isthmus  at  various  points, 
but  until  recently  these  plans  have  all  contemplated  artificial  water 
channels.  It  was  left  for  Mr.  James  B.  Eads,  after  accomplishing 
the  important  work  of  opening  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River 
to  commerce,  to  propose  and  develop  the  plan  of  a  ship-railway 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec.  The  important  advantages  of 
every  nature  stated  in  the  previous  chapters,  together  with  the  fact 
that  an  artificial  water  channel,  either  at  sea  level  or  by  means  of 
locks,  would  be  altogether  too  expensive,  were  the  reasons  for  the 
inception  of  the  ship-railway. 

The  following  description  of  the  Ship-Railway  was  written  by 
Mr.  Eads,  for  "  JOHNSON'S  UNIVERSAL  CYCLOPEDIA,"  ( Revised 
Edition,  pp.  252  to  256  :) 

"  After  the  publication,  in  1879,  of  the  estimates  made  by  the 
Ship-Canal  Convention  which  met,  at  the  solicitation  of  Count  de 
Lesseps,  in  Paris,  the  writer  was  led  to  investigate  the  practicability 
of  the  transit  of  loaded  merchant-ships  of  the  largest  class  by  railway, 
to  ascertain  if  a  more  economic  method'  of  transit  than  by  canal 
could  not  be  thus  secured.  It  was  generally  known  that  the  trans- 
portation of  sea-going  craft  overland  had  been  accomplished  at  the 
Isthmus  of  Corinth  by  the  Athenians,  400  B.  c.  ;  that  in  the  Middle 
Ages  the  Turks  had  transported  ships  of  war  in  a  similar  manner  ; 
that  a  hundred  years  ago  Swedenborg  had  carried  three  vessels  of 
war  across  one  of  the  peninsulas  in  the  Baltic  ;  that  before  the  con- 
struction of  the  Suez  Canal  was  commenced  a  ship-railway  was  pro- 
posed in  lieu  of  it  by  Brunlees  and  Webb,  two  English  engineers  of 
note  ;  that  they  had  also  in  1872  proposed  and  made  plans  for  the 
construction  of  a  ship-railway  across  Central  America  for  ships  of 
1200  tons  burden  ;  and  that,  in  1875,  Mr.  H.  G.  C.  Ketchum  pro- 
posed a  ship-railway  across  the  Isthmus  of  Chignecto,  between  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  and  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  for  vessels  which  would 
weigh,  with  cargo  and  machinery,  about  2000  tons.  Hence  the  idea 
of  transporting  ships  by  rail  is  not  a  .new  one.  The  plans  hitherto 
proposed  for  this  purpose  did  not  contemplate,  however,  the  hand- 
ling of  the  largest  merchant-ships.  Crude  estimates  of  the  cost  of 
the  practical  devices  for  this  method  soon  gave  assurance  of  great 
economy,  in  both  money  and  time,  in  favor  of  the  ship-railway. 
Further  studies  led  to  such  improvements  in  the  carriage  on  which 
to  transport  the  ship,  and  the  docks  necessary  to  place  it  on  the  car- 
riage and  railway,  as  assured  the  absolute  safety  of  the  largestjoaded 
ship  during  transit." 


34 

!<  The  methods  for  raising,  hauling  and  handling  vessels,  evolved 
from  five  years'  study  of  the  subject,  will  now  be  given.  At  each 
terminus  is  excavated  a  basin  leading  on  the  one  side  from  the 
river,  and  on  the  other  from  the  lake,  to  a  dock,  which  will  be 
walled  on  the  sides  and  on  one  end  either  by  masonry  or  by  creo- 
soted  timber.  In  this  dock  will  be  placed  a  pontoon,  which,  like  an 
ordinary  lifting-dock,  will  be  capable  of  raising  the  vessels  (Plate  III.). 
This  pontoon  will  be  made  of  steel  plates,  with  bulkheads  athwart- 
ships  and  fore  and  aft,  so  as  to  render  it  strong  enough  to  support 
the  weight,  when  out  of  the  water,  that  it  has  to  carry.  Its  size  will 
be  about  450  feet  in  length,  75  feet  in  width,  and  from  12  to  15  feet 
in  depth.  There  will  be  built  upon  it,  on  each  side,  a  water-tight 
tower  whose  top  will  stand  above  the  surface  of  the  water  when  the 
pontoon  is  submerged  and  resting  on  the  bottom  of  the  dock.  The 
pontoon  is  sunk  by  opening  sluice-gates  ;  these  sluice-gates  are  in  its 
sides,  and  are  operated  from  the  top  of  these  towers.  It  is  raised  by 
means  of  powerful  pumps,  which  withdraw  the  water  from  the  pon- 
toon and  discharge  it  into  the  surrounding  dock  or  basin.  These 
pumps  are  to  be  sufficiently  powerful  to  raise  the  pontoon,  with  a 
vessel  upon  it,  in  from  15  to  20  minutes.  It  is  guided  in  its  vertical 
movement  by  large  anchor-rods,  which  are  secured  in  the  foundations 
of  the  dock.  These  rods  pass  freely  through  the  pontoon,  but  are 
separated  from  its  water-spaces.  The  heads  of  these  guiding-rods 
prevent  the  pontoon  from  rising  above  a  certain  level,  and  also  re- 
sist its  buoyancy  when  the  vessel  has  been  run  off  of  the  pontoon  on 
to  the  railway.  In  order  to  lift  a  vessel  without  injury  to  itself  and 
to  place  it  upon  a  cradle  or  carriage  for  transportation  without  any 
possible  injury  to  this  carriage,  it  is  necessary  to  distribute  or  equal- 
ize the  weight  of  the  vessel  so  as  to  bring  no  more  weight  upon  one 
part  of  the  carriage  than  upon  another.  A  vessel  has  not  the  same 
weight  per  unit  of  its  length  throughout  its  whole  extent,  but,  being 
a  girder  capable  of  resisting  the  flexures  and  bending  moments  which 
it  must  necessarily  meet  in  its  voyage  on  the  ocean,  it  is  capable  of 
resisting,  without  injury  to  its  structural  integrity,  this  necessary 
equalization.  In  fact,  when  the  vessel  is  in  its  natural  element — 
smooth  water — it  is  not  equally  borne  by  the  water  per  unit  of  its 
length,  from  the  fact  that  certain  parts  of  the  vessel  are  more  buoy- 
ant than  other  parts.  For  instance,  the  bow  and  the  stern  of  a 
steamer,  or  of  any  craft,  have  a  tendency  to  droop,  and  it  is  often  the 
case  that  after  a  vessel  has  been  launched  the  ends  of  the  keel  are 
found  to  be  below  its  central  part.  This  equalization  is  accom- 
plished by  a  series  of  hydraulic  rams,  or  presses,  which  are  built  into 
the  pontoon,  and  are  founded  upon  a  second  deck  about  6  feet  be- 
low the  main,  or  upper,  deck  of  the  pontoon.  These  rams  are  ar- 
ranged in  longitudinal  and  transverse  lines,  which  are  spaced  in  each 
direction  about  7  feet  apart.  The  combined  or  total  area  of  the 
rams  in  any  one  transverse  line  is  exactly  equal  to  the  combined  area 
of  every  other  transverse  line.  There  being  seven  rams  in  one  of 
these  transverse  lines  in  the  midship  section  of  the  vessel,  their  area, 
if  combined  into  one  ram,  would  be  exactly  equal  to  the  one  ram 
under  the  bow  or  the  stern  of  the  vessel.  As  we  approach  toward 


mrnm^mfoKi^^mmKi.nm/i 


37 


the  bow  or  the  stern  from  the  centre  there  are  five  rams  in  a  trans- 
verse line  ;  as  we  approach  still  nearer  to  the  bow  or  the  stern  there 
are  three  rams  in  each  ;  and  under  the  bow  or  the  stern  there  is  only 
one  ram  for  each  7  feet  of  the  ship's  length.  These  rams  are  all  con- 
nected by  means  of  water-pipes,  through  which  pressure  is  applied 
to  the  whole  system  of  rams  by  means  of  a  hydraulic  pressure-pump 
placed  on  the  top  of  the  towers  on  the  side  of  the  pontoon.  These 
rams  have  a  vertical  movement  of  7  or  8  feet.  When  the  principle 
of  hydrostatic  pressure  is  understood,  it  will  be  seen  that  any  mass, 
whatever  may  be  its  shape,  that  rests  upon  this  system  of  hydraulic 
rams  when  they  are  under  pressure,  will  be  equally  borne  through- 
out its  whole  extent,  providing  it  has  a  bearing  upon  all  the  rams  in 
the  system.  In  the  case  of  a  vessel,  either  a  sailing-ship  or  a  steamer, 
this  equalization  is  so  perfect  that  the  excess  of  weight  in  the  central 
portion  of  the  vessel  when  she  is  loaded  will  be  taken  up  by  the  lines 
of  rams  toward  the  bow  and  the  stern,  which  have  immediately  over 
them  a  weight  less  than  that  which  they  are  able  to  sustain.  This 
system  of  rams  is  grouped  by  means  of  valves,  so  that,  if  necessary, 
a  greater  pressure  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  one  part  of  the  ves- 
sel than  upon  another.  In  practice  there  would  be  a  large  number 
of  valves,  so  that  the  system  could  be  applied  to  different  sizes  and 
shapes  of  vessels  as  each  might  require.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore, 
that  when  the  vessel  rests  upon  this  system  of  rams  she  is  water- 
borne  ;  for  she  is  resting  upon  so  many  columns  of  water  under 
pressure,  which  equalizes  the  weight  of  the  vessel  by  a  process  which 
is  similar  to  that  employed  by  Nature  herself  when  the  vessel  is  rest- 
ing in  her  natural  element.  Attached  to  the  water-pipes  is  a  pres- 
sure-gauge, which  will  serve  to -show  the  exact  weight  of  the  mass 
borne  on  the  system  of  rams. 

"  As  a  body  floating  under  water  has  no  stability,  the  pontoon  which 
raises  and  lowers  the  vessel  has  none  when  wholly  under  water.  As 
it  will  not  always  be  possible  to  bring  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the 
vessel  fore  and  aft  directly  over  the  centre  of  the  pontoon,  there  will 
be  a  tendency  for  the  pontoon  to  come  up  out  of  level  if  there  is 
more  weight  upon  one  end  of  it  than  upon  the  other.  To  obviate 
this  the  pontoon  is  balanced,  not  by  water  let  into  the  compartments, 
as  is  the  case  with  a  balance-dock,  but  by  mechanical  appliances 
called  '  hydraulic  governors.'  (See  Plate  III.,  A.  A.)  These  governors 
are  located  at  the  four  corners  of  the  pontoon,  and  at  other  points 
along  the  sides  of  the  pontoon  if  in  practice  it  should  be  found  to  be 
necessary.  They  consist  of  plungers  working  in  cylinders.  The 
plungers  are  attached  to  the  pontoon,  and  the  cylinders  to  the  dock 
walls.  On  each  corner  there  are  an  inverted  cylinder  and  an 
upright  cylinder.  One  upright  and  one  inverted  cylinder  on  the 
diagonal  corners  are  connected  with  each  other  by  means  of  pipes. 
The  cylinders  and  the  pipes  are  water-tight,  and  are  filled  with 
water.  Now,  if  there  is,  say,  100  tons  more  weight  upon  one 
end  of  the  pontoon  than  there  is  upon  the  other  end,  one-half 
of  this  will  be  borne  by  each  of  the  two  plungers  secured  to  the 
heavy  end  of  the  pontoon,  and  there  will  be  brought  upon  the 
water  in  each  of  the  two  inverted  cylinders  secured  to  the  dock 


38 


walls  at  that  end,  a  weight  of  50  tons.  The  pressure  due  to 
this  weight  is  immediately  transmitted  through  the  pipe  to  the  up- 
right cylinder  on  the  diagonal  corner  at  the  other  end  of  the  dock, 
and  the  water  in  this  cylinder  instantly  reacts  with  a  50-ton  pressure 
as  a  plunger  upon  the  metal  plunger  in  the  cylinder,  and  thus  com- 
pels this  corner  of  the  pontoon  to  go  down  with  the  same  velocity 
and  to  remain  at  the  same  level  as  the  diagonal  corner  of  the  pon- 
toon with  which  it  is  connected.  If  the  excess  of  weight  be  at  the 
other  end,  this  action  is  reversed.  By  this  means  the  pontoon  is 
made  to  rise  and  fall  in  a  perfectly  level  plane,  and  consequently  is 
always  so  balanced  as  to  work  freely  upon  the  guiding-rods.  A 
pressure-gauge  attached  to  the  governor-pipes  will  indicate  the 
amount  of  excess  of  weight  on  either  end  of  the  pontoon.  If  it  is 
too  great  for  the  governors  to  balance  with  safety,  or  for  the  wheels 
at  that  end  of  the  carriage,  the  pontoon  would  be  lowered  and  the 
position  of  the  vessel  shifted.  On  the  deck  of  the  pontoon  and  be- 
tween the  longitudinal  lines  of  rams  are  laid  the  rails  for  the  carriage 
which  is  to  transport  the  vessel.  These  rails  are  six  in  number  and 
constitute  three  ordinary  gauge-tracks,  each  4  feet  8£  inches.  The 
outer  rails  are  29  feet  apart  between  gauge-lines.  The  carriage  (Plate 
V.)  to  transport  the  vessel  is  built  of  steel  girders.  As  the  vessel  is 
equally  supported  throughout  its  length,  it  cannot  be  bent,  and,  as 
the  rails  resting  upon  an  immovable  road-bed  constitute  a  continuous 
girder,  the  carriage  is  made  with  its  greatest  strength  in  its  cross- 
girders,  the  longitudinal  girders  being  only  of  sufficient  strength  to 
carry  the  trucks  which  are  placed  under  them.  The  cross-girders  are 
spaced  about  7  feet  apart,  exactly  as  the  rams  in  the  pontoon  are 
spaced.  They  are  supplied  with  a  system  of  supports,  or  keel  and 
bilge-blocks,  for  the  vessel.  The  keel-block  running  the  whole 
length  of  the  vessel  is  continuous,  and  is  sufficiently  elastic  to  con- 
form to  any  irregularities  in  the  line  of  the  keel.  The  supports 
under  the  keel-block,  and  the  other  supports  of  the  vessel,  are  made 
of  heavy  steel  rods  in  which  a  thread  is  cut  for  an  adjusting-nut, 
which  can  be  run  up  or  down  on  the  rods.  The  upper  end  of  these 
rods,  under  the  bottom  and  bilges  of  the  vessel,  are  supplied  with  an 
adjustable  hinged  batten  (see  Plate  IV.,  Fig.  4,  top]  on  a  universal  joint. 
These  battens  have  an  area  of  about  9  square  feet  each,  and  are 
cushioned  with  rubber  or  other  material,  to  prevent  injury  to  the  ves- 
sel when  it  rests  upon  these  supports.  The  screw  and  batten  may  be 
said  to  resemble  in  general  shape  a  huge  music-stand. 

"  The  process  of  lifting  a  vessel  is  as  follows  :  The  carriage  is  run 
from  the  railway  upon  the  pontoon  and  secured  in  exact  position  on 
it  by  means  of  locks.  This  insures  each  screw  being  exactly  above 
a  hydraulic  ram.  The  water  is  let  into  the  pontoon  by  sluice-gates, 
and  it  goes  down,  with  the  carriage  upon  it,  until  it  rests  upon  the 
foundation  of  the  dock,  or  to  a  sufficient  depth  in  the  water  to  allow 
the  vessel  to  be  floated  in  over  it  without  striking  the  battens  of  the 
carriage,  which  are  previously  let  down  by  means  of  the  adjusting- 
nuts  until  the  heads  of  the  screws  rest  upon  the  girders  of  the 
carriage.  The  vessel  is  then  brought  in  over  the  pontoon  and 


43 

located  as  near  as  possible  with  its  centre  of  gravity  over  the  centre 
of  gravity  of  the  pontoon.  Adjustable  guides  from  the  side  of  the 
dock,  working  by  hydraulic  power,  quickly  and  gently  bring  the 
vessel  so  that  its  keel  is  directly  over  the  keel-block  of  the  carriage. 
The  pontoon-pumps  are  now  set  at  work,  and  the  pontoon,  with  the 
carriage  upon  it,  comes  up  under  the  vessel.  Just  before  the  keel- 
block  and  battens-  come  into  contact  with  it  the  hydraulic  pumps  on 
the  towers  of  the  pontoon,  which  actuate  the  rams,  are  set  at  work, 
and  they  gently  force  up  under  the  keel,  the  bottom,  bilges  and 
sides  of  the  vessel  the  whole  system  of  supports.  The  valves  are 
then  closed,  to  prevent  the  water-pressure  from  escaping  from 
under  the  rams,  and  the  pontoon-pump  continues  to  lift  the  pontoon, 
with  the  vessel  on  it,  up  out  of  the  water.  As  the  vessel  rises, 
resting  upon  the  system  of  rams,  its  weight  upon  them  becomes  every 
moment  greater  and  greater,  some  of  them  being  slightly  depressed 
and  some  slightly  elevated,  and  the  equalization  through  the  system 
goes  on  as  the  vessel  rises,  until,  when  it  is  entirely  out  of  the  water, 
its  whole  weight  is  equally  distributed  from  stem  to  stern.  While 
it  is  still  resting  upon  the  screws,  which  have  been  pushed  up  and 
are  held  by  the  rams,  the  adjusting-nuts  are  run  down  on  the  thread 
of  each  screw  until  they  have  a  firm  bearing  upon  the  plates  of  the 
cross-girders.  When  this  adjustment  has  been  made — which  would 
require  only  a  few  minutes  for  ten  expert  men  to  accomplish — the 
valves  are  opened,  the  water-pressure  escapes  from  the  rams,  and 
they  recede  downward  into  the  pontoon.  The  weight  of  the  vessel 
has  now  been  transferred  from  the  rams  to  the  carriage,  and  the 
equalization  of  the  weight  upon  the  carriage  is  as  perfect  as  it  was 
upon  the  rams  themselves.  As  the  girders  of  the  carriage  are  spaced 
the  same  as  the  transverse  lines  of  rams,  if  we  arrange  the  same 
number  of  wheels  with  each  girder,  we  will  then  have  the  same 
weight  imposed  upon  every  wheel,  which  is  intended  to  be  not  over 
eight  and  one-half  or  nine  tons,  which  they  will  be  able  to  sustain, 
for  each  wheel  will  be  tested  to  twenty  tons  when  it  is  manufactured. 
As  it  is  a  common  practice  for  the  railways  of  this  country,  and 
especially  so  for  those  of  England,  to  impose  a  greater  weight  upon 
the  driving-wheels  of  locomotives,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  is  an 
admissible  load  for  the  wheels,  which  will  be  arranged  in  a  very  simple 
form  of  trucks  without  bogies.  As  it  is  necessary  for  the  carriage 
to  move  on  practically  straight  lines,  the  wheels  can  be  arranged 
with  two  flanges  instead  of  with  one,  as  a  precaution  against  de- 
railment, although  the  breaking  of  one  wheel  or  of  several  wheels  will 
not  affect  the  integrity  of  the  carriage.  Over  each  axle  is  a  powerful 
spring,  (see  Fig  3,  Plate  V.)  which  will  also  be  tested  to  twenty  tons 
before  closing.  It  has  a  vertical  movement  of  six  inches.  When  the 
maximum  load — a  5000-ton  weight — is  placed  upon  the  carriage, 
these  springs  will  be  closed  to  within  three  inches.  This  gives  an 
elastic  bearing  for  the  vessel  and  the  carriage,  and  will  serve  two 
purposes — one,  to  take  up  any  slight  irregularities  there  may  be  in 
the  track  ;  the  other,  to  prevent  any  possible  jar  to  the  carriage  or 
to  the  vessel.  When  the  load  has  been  thus  equalized  upon  the 


carriage,  it  is  evident  that  there  will  be  no  more  weight  brought  upon 
the  rails  at  any  point  than  there  is  brought  upon  them  by  a 
locomotive  on  an  ordinary  railway  ;  so  that,  so  far  as  the  strain 
upon  the  rails  is  concerned,  a  rail  of  ordinary  dimensions  would 
answer  the  purpose.  But,  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  undue  strain, 
the  rails  will  weigh  from  100  to  120  pounds  per  lineal  yard,  which  is 
about  twice  the  weight  of  an  ordinary  railroad  rail.  These  rails 
will  be  of  steel,  and  will  rest  upon  long  steel  ties  which  extend  under 
the  whole  six  rails  of  the  railway.  They  will  have  a  large  bearing- 
surface,  will  be  securely  fastened  to  the  rails,  and  will  rest  upon  the 
best  quality  of  ballast  or  concrete.  The  road-bed  itself  will  be 
constructed  of  the  very  best  materials  obtainable,  and  in  the  most 
thorough  manner.  The  road-bed  will  be  from  forty-five  to  fifty 
feet  wide. 

"  The  motive-power  for  hauling  the  loads  will  be  furnished  by 
powerful  locomotives,  which  will  have  imposed  upon  the  driving- 
wheels  of  each  at  least  100  tons,  to  give  great  traction-power.  As 
the  maximum  load,  including  the  carriage,  will  be  only  5,650  tons, 
it  will  not  be  difficult  to  haul  it  over  the  grades  of  the  railway.  The 
ordinary  consolidated  engines  of  the  day  will  pull  from  1,500  to 
2,000  tons  without  difficulty  over  grades  up  to  twenty  feet  to  the 
mile.  Three  such  ordinary  engines  would  therefore  haul  the 
maximum  load  ;  but,  with  locomotives  of  double  the  power  of  these 
engines,  no  difficulty  is  apprehended  in  performing  the  work 
required,  and  at  ten  miles  per  hour. 

"  A  carriage  constructed  after  the  manner  described  must  necessarily 
move  on  practically  straight  lines.  It  will,  however,  permit  the  use 
of  a  curve  of  twenty  miles'  radius,  which  is  practically  a  straight 
line.  At  points  on  the  line  where  such  a  curve  as  this  would 
necessitate  very  heavy  construction-work  in  the  shape  of  mountain- 
cuttings  or  very  high  embankments,  a  change  of  direction  will  be 
obtained  by  means  of  turn-tables.  (See  Plate  VI.)  These  turn-tables 
are  very  simple  and  economical  in  construction,  maintenance  and 
operation.  By  their  use  a  large  amount  of  money  will  be  saved  in 
construction.  The  location  of  the  railway,  which  has  been  made 
with  great  care  by  instrumental  surveys  and  detailed  examinations  of 
the  country,  is,  through  the  rougher  portion  of  the  isthmus,  along  a 
succession  of  valleys  between  high  hills  and  mountains.  In  order  to 
pass  from  one  valley  to  another  and  take  advantage  of  the  natural 
lines  of  the  country,  these  turn-tables  are  employed.  Five  of  them 
only  are  necessary.  They  are  built  as  follows  :  A  segmental  basin 
of  masonry  is  arranged  to  receive  a  pontoon  and  a  certain  quantity 
of  water.  This  pontoon  is  so  centered  in  this  basin  that  it  will 
revolve  around  a  central  pivot,  although  it  does  not  rest  upon  it. 
When  not  revolving,  the  pontoon  rests  upon  concentric  bearing- 
surfaces  in  the  bottom  of  the  basin.  In  order  to  turn  a  vessel,  it  is 
run  on  to  this  pontoon,  into  which  the  water  of  the  basin  has  been 
admitted  ;  the  water  is  then  pumped  out  from  the  pontoon  into  the 
basin  again  by  means  of  a  powerful  centrifugal  pump  until  the 
pontoon  floats  sufficiently  to  be  lifted  from  its  bearing  surfaces.  (See 
Plate  VII.,  Figs.  1  and  2.)  It  is  then,  by  means  of  stationary  engines 


Fig.    1, 


Fig.  2. 


Plate  VII. — DETAILS  OF  THE  FLOATING  TURNTABLE. 


49 

worked  by  a  cable  or  other  means,  turned  about  the  central  pivot, 
while  floating  in  the  water,  until  the  rails  of  the  deck  of  the  pontoon 
correspond  in  line  with  those  of  the  railway  in  the  new  direction. 
The  water  is  then  admitted  to  the  pontoon  by  means  of  sluice-gates 
or  valves,  and  it  is  again  grounded  upon  the  concentric  bearings  in 
the  bottom  of  the  basin.  The  vessel  is  then  run  off  the  pontoon 
upon  the  railway  until  it  arrives  at  the  next  point  where  a  change  of 
direction  by  this  means  is  to  be  made,  when  the  same  operation 
again  turns  the  vessel  in  another  direction.  At  three  of  the  five 
turn-tables,  examinations  show  that  water  under  a  head  from  the 
mountain-streams  can  be  utilized  to  perform  the  work  without  the 
use  of  the  pumps.  These  turn-tables,  while  they  are  a  necessity, 
will  also  be  employed  for  two  very  important  purposes — one,  as 
passing-places  for  vessels  going  in  opposite  directions.  A  vessel 
moving  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  toward  the  Pacific  meets  at  one  of 
these  turn-tables  another  coming  from  the  Pacific,  and  is  on  its 
arrival  run  across  the  turn-table  on  to  an  extension  of  the  track. 
The  turn-table  is  then  revolved  to  take  on  the  vessel  coming  from 
the  opposite  direction,  which  then  goes  on  its  way.  The  first  vessel 
is  then  run  back  upon  the  pontoon  and  sent  on  its  course,  the  whole 
movement  occupying  but  a  few  minutes.  It  will  be  seen  that,  the 
weight  of  the  vessel  having  been  equalized  upon  the  carriage  by  the 
hydraulic  rams,  if  the  centre  of  the  carrriage  is  brought  over  the 
centre  of  the  "pontoon,  the  latter  will  be  balanced  when  it  rises  from 
the  bearing-surfaces  in  the  bottom  of  the  basin  ;  but  if  the  pontoon 
is  not  exactly  balanced,  it  can  be  brought  level  by  letting  water  into 
one  or  more  of  the  compartments  on  one  or  the  other  end  of  the 
pontoon.  The  second  purpose  that  the  turn-tables  will  subserve  will 
be  as  dry-docks  where  vessels  can  be  run  out  on  tracks  radiating 
from  the  segmental  basin,  on  which  they  can  be  cleaned,  painted  or 
repaired,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  where  they  can  remain  as  long  as 
necessary.  (See  Plate  VII.,  Fig.  1,  D.)  As  every  iron  ship  must  be 
taken  out  of  the  water  twice  every  year,  the  expense  of  docking — 
which  is  considerable  for  a  large  vessel — will  be  saved.  There  will  be 
one  of  these  turn-tables  at  each  terminus  of  the  road,  near  the  dock,  to 
facilitate  the  handling  of  the  business  at  those  points,  and  they  will 
be  located  also  at  other  points  on  the  line  where  the  operation  of  the 
road  may  show  meeting-points  for  vessels  to  be  required. 

"  The  changes  in  grade  on  the  railway  will  be  made  by  very  flat 
vertical  curves.  The  elasticity  of  the  vessel  isself  and  the  movement 
of  the  springs  will  allow  a  change  practically  of  about  two  inches  in 
400  feet.  A  curve  established  on  this  basis  has  been  applied  to^the 
working  profiles  of  the  railway  and  found  to  be  perfectly  practicable 
in  construction." 


"  In  the  discussion  of  the  mechanical  appliances,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  very  thorough  and  substantial  manner  in 
which  a  sea-going  vessel  must  necessarily  be  constructed  to  withstand 
successfully  the  various  strains  to  which  it  is  subjected  on  the  ocean. 
The  flexures  in  both  directions,  the  torsional  strains,  -  and  a 


50 

combination  of  these  different  strains  which  every  vessel  undergoes 
in  a  seaway,  make  it  absolutely  necessary  that  the  vessels  should  be 
built  with  a  large  factor  of  safety.  Then,  again,  their  decks  and 
beams  and  plates  and  ribs  stiffen  the  whole  structure  for  passing 
through  those  shocks  and  impacts  which  they  receive  on  a  voyage, 
without  injury  to  their  structural  integrity.  The  greatest  strain 
which  a  vessel  could  possibly  undergo  when  lifted  and  transported  in 
the  manner  we  have  described  bears  no  comparison  to  those  which 
the  same  vessel  must  undergo  in  its  natural  element.  It  will  be  seen, 
also,  that  by  the  very  large  number  of  broad-surfaced  supports  on 
which  the  vessel  is  carried  she  cannot  be  strained  in  any  part  of  her 
bottom  or  bilges  or  sides,  and  even  one  that  is  old  and  tender  can 
sustain  no  injury  in  transportation.  A  large  number  of  experts  in 
designing,  building  and  handling  vessels  of  all  kinds  and  sizes  could 
be  quoted  to  show  that  in  their  minds  there  exists  no  practical 
objection  to  the  plans  as  herein  described."  (See  Report  of  Senate 
Committee,  pp.  70  to  80.)  "  Obstacles,  one  after  another,  have  been 
overcome,  by  study  and  by  using  principles  and  appliances,  with 
perhaps  new  adaptations,  that  are  already  in  use  in  the  world  for 
the  same  purposes,  though  perhaps  on  a  smaller  scale." 

In  this  age  such  wonderful  progress  has  been  made  in  mechanical 
appliances  that  any  proposed  work  required  for  the  good  of  man- 
kind seems  to  be  in  the  power  of  man  to  accomplish.  In  railway  ad- 
vance, especially,  the  development  in  power,  speed,  economy  and 
adaptability  to  the  wants  of  man,  is  marvelous.  In  a  recent  address 
before  the  British  Association,  by  Mr.  B.  Baker  of  England,  we  find 
the  following  statement  : 

"  Fifty  years  ago  the  chairman  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington 
'  Railway,  when  asked  by  a  Parliamentary  committee  if  he  thought 

*  any  further  improvements  would  be  possible  on  railways,  replied 
'  that  he  understood  in  future  all  new  railways  would  have  a  high 
'  earthwork  bank  on  each  side  to  prevent  engines  toppling  over  the 

*  embankments  and  to  arrest  hot  ashes  which  continually  set  fire  to 
'  neighboring  stacks,  but  in  other  respects  he  appeared  to  think  per- 

*  fection  was    attained.     Shortly    before  the  introduction   of  loco- 

*  motives,  it  was    also   thought  perfection   was   attained    when  low 
'  trucks  were  attached  to  the  trains  to  carry  the  horses  over  the  por- 
'  tions  of  the  line  where  descending  grades  prevailed,  and  all  the 
'  newspapers  announced,  with  a  great  flourish  of  trumpets,  that  a 
'  year's  experience  showed  the  saving  in  horse  flesh  to  be  fully  33 

*  per  cent." 

In  remarkable  contrast  with  this  is  the  record  of  a  train  recently 
hauled  over  the  New  York,  West  Shore  and  Buffalo  Railway.  This 
train  ran  several  miles  at  the  rate  of  forty-three  seconds  per  mile, 
84  miles  per  hour.  The  weight  of  the  train  was  155  tons,  and  the 
average  running  speed  for  the  whole  distance — 426  miles — was  57 
miles  an  hour. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  remarkable  advance  also  in  locomo- 
tive construction  during  the  last  fifty  years.  The  first  engine  built 


51 

by  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works  in  1832,  named  "  Old  Ironsides," 
weighed  something  over  five  tons  ;  the  cylinders  were  9-J-  imches  in 
diameter  by  18  inches  stroke  ;  the  wheels  were  made  with  heavy  cast 
iron  hubs,  wooden  spokes  and  rims  and  wrought  iron  tires  ;  the  frame 
was  of  wood  placed  outside  the  wheels,  and  the  boiler  was  30  inches 
in  diameter.  The  Philadelphia  Chronicle  of  November  24,  1832, 
noticing  a  trial  of  this  engine,  stated  : 

"  This  engine  will  draw  30  tons  gross  on  a  level  road." 

The  locomotive  was  set  at  work  on  the  railroad,  and  the  following 
appeared  in  the  newspapers  : 

"  Notice.  The  locomotive  engine  (built  by  M.  W.  Baldwin  of  this 
"  city)  will  depart  daily  when  the  weather  is  fair,  with  a  train  of  pas- 
"  senger  cars.  On  rainy  days  horses  will  be  attached.'" 

In  remarkable  contrast  with  their  first  locomotive  built  53  years 
ago  is  the  immense  "  Decapod,"  or  ten-wheeled  coupled  consolidated 
locomotive,  built  by  the  Baldwin  Works  recently  for  the  Dom  Pedro 
II.  Railway  in  Brazil.  Its  general  dimensions  are  as  follows  :  Total 
weight  of  engine  and  tender  ready  for  work,  224,000  Ibs,  equal  to 
112  net  tons  ;  diameter  of  boiler,  64  inches  ;  heating  surface,  1943 
square  feet  ;  cylinders,  22  inches  by  26  inches,  and  it  is  guaranteed 
to  haul  3600  gross  tons  on  a  level  track. 

On  December  7th,  1885,  a  freight  train  over  one  mile  long  and 
weighing  3253-|-  gross  tons  was  hauled  into  New  Orleans  over  the 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad,  by  one  engine  weighing  55  tons. 

We  can  see  from  the  above  with  what  ease  the  locomotives  of  the 
day,  built  for  ordinary  railroads,  can  haul  a  loaded  vessel  over  the 
Ship-Railway  by  attaching  as  many  as  may  be  required  to  the  car 
according  to  the  size  of  the  vessel. 

Advances  as  remarkable  have  also  been  made  in  the  construction 
of  railways,  and  in  the  various  kinds  of  rolling  stock.  In  other 
departments  of  mechanical  science,  especially  in  the  employment 
of  hydraulic  appliances  there  has  also  been  a  great  advance. 
There  is  now  building  in  Scotland  by  Messrs.  Sir  John  Fowler 
and  B.  Baker,  civil  engineers,  the  greatest  bridge  in  the  world. 
Two  of  its  spans  are  each  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  ten  feet 
in  length,  and  the  top  chord  of  the  bridge  is  over  three  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  above  high  tide.  The  superstructure  will  require  forty-six 
thousand  tons  of  steel,  all  of  which,  mostly  composed  of  plates,  is 
being  bent  into  shape  by  hydraulic  presses  of  various  descriptions. 
In  the  address  of  Mr.  Baker  alluded  to,  we  find  the  following : — 

"  Hydraulic  appliances  are  also  an  indispensable  part  of  the 
'  scheme  for  erecting  the  great  seventeen  hundred  foot  spans.  Massive 
'  girders  will  be  put  together  at  a  low  level  and  be  hoisted  as  high  as 
'  the  top  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  by  hydraulic  power.  Continuous 
'  girders,  nearly  a  third  of  a  mile  in  length,  will  be  similarly  raised. 
'  Not  only  the  girders,  but  workmen,  their  sheds,  cranes  and  appli- 
'  ances  will  be  carried  up  steadily  and  imperceptibly  as  the  work  of 


52 

"  erection  proceeds,  on   platforms  weighing  in  some  instances  more 
"  than  one  thousand  tons. 

**#•**#•*# 

"  Not  merely  in  the  superstructure,  but  in  the  construction  of  the 
"  foundations,  were  hydraulic  appliances  of  a  novel  character  indis- 
"  pensable  at  the  Forth  bridge.  Huge  wrought  iron  caissons,  or 
"  cylinders,  seventy  feet  in  diameter  and  seventy-two  feet  high,  were 
"  taken  up  and  set  down  as  readily  as  a  man  would  handle  a  bucket. 
*  *  *  It  would  be  possible,  indeed,  with  the  appliances  at 
"  the  Forth  bridge,  to  arrange  that  the  simple  opening  of  a  v?lve 
"  should  start  digging"  (by  hydraulic  power)  "at  the  bottom  of  the 
"  sea,  riveting  at  a  height  of  nearly  four  hundred  feet  above  the  sea, 
"  and  all  the  multifarious  operations  of  bending,  forging,  hoisting  and 
"  extending  over  a  site  of  a  mile  and  half  in  length." 

With  this  wonderful  adaptation  of  hydraulic  power  to  moving  heavy 
masses  before  us,  who  can  doubt  that  it  may  also  be  applied  to  the 
lifting  and  handling  of  heavily-loaded  vessels,  and  in  the  distribution 
of  their  weight,  as  has  been  described  above. 

That  the  vessels  on  the  docks  or  on  the  railway  will  not  be  subjected 
to  strains  injurious  to  them,  or  in  fact  greater  than  they  undergo  in 
an  ordinary  voyage,  is  evident  on  a  little  reflection  by  those  who 
have  carefully  studied  the  illustrations  and  description.  It  may 
not  be  known,  even  to  those  who  are  accustomed  to  travel 
on  the  ocean,  that  a  vessel  undergoes  strains  in  her  ordinary  voyages 
very  severe  compared  with  any  she  will  possibly  meet  with  on  the 
Ship-Railway.  The  following  letter  is  from  a  gentleman  of  high 
scientific  attainments  and  large  practical  experience  as  an  engineer,, 
and  his  observations  may  be  implicitly  relied  upon : — 

The  Cornell  University, 

Department  of  Civil  Engineering, 

E   A    Fuertes,  Dean. 

Ithaca,  New  York,  Nov.  3d,  1884. 

DEAH  MR.  CORTHELL  : — Not  knowing  the  address  of  Captain  Eads,  I  have- 
been  unable  to  send  him  the  following,  which  was  undertaken  as  an  abstract 
experiment ;  but  dedicated  to  him,  when  found  to  bear  strong  testimony  to  his 
foresight. 

I  was  on  board  the  Str.  Germanic,  a  staunch  ship  of  the  White  Star  line,  in 
the  Fall  of  1881,  homeward  bound  from  Liverpool.  On  the  first  Sunday  after 
leaving  England,  the  wind  was  blowing  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  to  eighteen  miles 
per  hour,  rather  gustily,  with  a  moderately  high  sea.  It  then  occurred  to  me  to 
measure  the  deflection  of  the  ship,  being  impressed  not  only  by  the  effect  of  the 
waves  upon  her  length  and  sides,  but  also  by  the  strain  upon  her  frames, 
imposed  by  the  enormous  moments  of  her  'huge  spars.  I  had  with  me  a 
reoonnoitering  field  glass  (provided  with  cross  hairs,  power  30)  which  I  secured 
to  a  convenient  angle  in  the  wood  work  ;  and  soon  became  satisfied  that  the 
deflection  was  large  enough  to  be  measured  with  the  means  at  my  command. 
I  then  counted  5o  steps  (each  29")  from  the  telescope  to  an  awning  post 
painted  white,  and  109.5  steps  to  a  rope  in  the  rigging  ;  and  to  the  rope  I  tied 
a  piece  of  white  tape  in  range  with  the  telescope. 

I  now  tied  a  piece  of  black  string  to  the  white  post,  in  the  range  of  the  tele- 
scope and  the  distant  white  tape  in  the  rigging,  adjusting  it  when  I  thought 
there  was  no  deflection.  By  observing  the  nature  of  the  waves,  this  adjust- 


53 

nient  was  found  much  simpler  than  I  anticipated.  I  then  found  the  central 
deflection,  by  keeping  the  pointing  on  the  distant  tape,  and  observing  the  up 
and  down  motion  of  the  black  string  (on  the  post)  across  the  field,  measuring 
the  amplitude  of  this  motion  by  the  position  of  particles  of  dust  adhering  to  the 
cross-hairs  of  the  eye  piece  (negative).  After  many  trials  I  measured  011  the 
white  post,  the  distance  subtended  (from  the  telescope  end  of  the  line)  by  the 
dust  particles  above  mentioned,  and  found  for  the  middle  "total  deflection" 
nearly  13  inches.  Also,  it  was  evident  that  the  flexure  was  greater  when  bow 
and  stern  were  raised,  than  when  the  midship  section  was  raised  as  determined 
by  observing  the  position  of  the  ship  upon  the  waves  she  was  riding  at  the 
time  ;  this  shows  that  the  deck  was  stiffer  in  extension  than  in  compression. 

I  must  here  say,  that  the  measurements  were  difficult  to  make,  but  are  sub- 
stantially correct  to  establish  beyond  doubt  the  large  amount  of  absolute  deflec- 
tion. It  is  not  claimed  that  they  are  accurate  enough  to  give  with  precision  the 
relative  deflection.  However,  the  line  being  nearly  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  feet  long  ;  the  white  post  at  its  middle  point ;  and  supposing  the  concave 

and  convex  flexures  to  be  about  alike,  the  mean  deflection  was  :  264  *  x  12  "  =  487 

6.5" 
of  the  length. 

The  weather  was  only  a  little  rough,  and  very  far  from  what  must  be  encoun- 
tered by  any  sea-going  ship  ;  yet  I  am  sure  no  railroad  bridge,  short  of  expos- 
ure to  a  cyclone  is  ever  subjected  to  the  strain  suffered  by  the  Germanic  on  this 
Sunday,  with  absolute  safety. 

Though  a  short  span  bridge  is  thumped  considerably  by  a  fast  moving  train, 
it  cannot  be  compared  to  a  ship  when  a  sinking  or  receding  sea  instantly  with- 
draws the  enormous  water  pressure  against  her  sides,  and  the  reaction  of  her 
frame  is  reinforced  with  equal  suddenness,  by  the  outward  pressure  of  her 
cargo.  Also  the  sea  strikes  blows  with  concentrated  force  upon  restricted 
areas  of  the  ship's  surface,  causing  the  "  dreaded  tremor"  from  stem  to  stern, 
and  teasing  her  joints  and  timbers  with  all  kinds  of  flexures,  torsion  and  im- 
pacts. Only  those  who  have  personal  experience  with  the  sea  in  a  hurricane  can 
realize  the  stiffness  required  in  a  sea-going  vessel.  It  is  strange  to  see  how 
strongly  intolerant  popular  misconceptions  get  to  be  in  questions  of  this  kind. 
No  one  would  doubt  for  a  moment  that  a  railroad  bridge  can  be  transported 
.safely  over  any  railway  by  resting  its  extremeties  upon  trucks,  used  as  moving 
abutments  ;  and  yet,  I  know  of  no  railroad  bridge  of  the  ordinary  types,  that 
would  not  break  to  pieces  if  the  abutments  used  were  two  floating  scows  made 
to  stand  the  surging  and  blows  of  a  stormy  sea,  even  if  the  scows  were  supposed 
to  be  rigidly  connected.  While  a  ship  must  be  trussed  so  that  it  may  stand 
safely  on  end,  or  shaken  violently  when  held  in  the  middle  or  by  her  extrem- 
ities, the  popular  prejudice  against  the  ship-railway  is  based  upon  the  unjusti- 
fiable assumption  that  all  ships  are  wanting  in  the  very  quality  that  they  must 
possess,  and  do  possess  in  the  highest  degree,  viz  :  Stiffness,  compared  to  which 
the  stiffness  of  a  railroad  bridge  is  as  that  of  a  flexible  reed. 

The  deflection  of  the  Germanic  surprised  me  to  such  an  extent,  that  I  went 
to  her  engine  room  to  study  the  expedients  adopted  to  counteract  the  effect  of 
this  deflection  upon  the  moving  lines  of  her  engines.  I  found  the  engine 
frames  had  been  devised  with  an  evident  previous  knowledge 'of  an  expected 
large  deflection.  I  venture  to  say  that  the  future  history  of  total  side  support 
to  ships  in  railway  transit  will  be  like  that  of  many  previous  phantoms  ;  like 
the  dangers  of  the  railroad  wheel  tire,  and  the  introduction  of  steam  and  gas 
into  dwellings.  I  expect  to  see  the  day  in  which  a  5000  tonner  will  cross  the 
American  Isthmus  loaded  with  coal,  resting  on  her  keel,  with  only  enough  side 
support  to  keep  her  deck  level,  and  especially  iron  vessels  or  ships  built  on  pur- 
pose for  this  traffic. 

Wishing  you  God  Speed,  believe  me, 

Faithfully  your  friend, 

E.  A.  FUERTES. 

The  plans  described  on  the  preceding  pages  are  completely   illus- 


54 

trated  in  a  working  model  over  thirty  feet  in  length.  The  argument 
enforced  by  this  model  is  unanswerable,  and  it  has  led  many,  who 
at  first  doubted  the  practicability  of  the  plans,  to  express  entire  con- 
fidence in  their  success.  The  two  letters  which  follow  are  charac- 
teristic of  many  that  might  be  offered,  and  they  speak  for  them- 
selves : 

"A..  K.  Miller  &  Co.,  Ship  and  Steamship  Agents, 

"  37  Carondelet  Street,  New  Orleans,  June  18,  1885. 
"  E.  L.  CORTHELL,  ESQ.  ,  34  Nassau  Street,  New  York. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — I  am  in  receipt  of  your  esteemed  letter  of  the  15th  inst.,  and 
am  much  pleased  to  note  you  are  quite  well,  and  trust  your  enterprise  will 
meet  that  support  which  it  so  justly  deserves. 

"  In  this  connection,  permit  me  to  make  some  observations  regarding  your 
railway  project  for  the  transportation  of  ships  across  the  Isthmus. 

"  As  a  practical  seaman  and  commander  of  ships  for  many  years,  during 
which  time  I  have  had  the  occasion  to  raise  and  repair  large  ships  in  different 
styles  of  docks,  marine  railways,  etc. ,  I  had  formed,  or  rather  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  to  raise  a  loaded  ship  in  the  manner  proposed  by  Capt.  Eads, 
and  to  transport  her  as  suggested,  would  subject  the  ship  to  such  strain  that  it 
would  be  simply  impracticable,  and  could  not  succeed. 

"While  your  ship-railway  model  was  on  exhibition  at  this  city,  I  visited  it 
on  several  occasions,  and  after  a  thorough  examination  of  the  manner  of  raising, 
application  of  rams  and  distribution  of  lifting  power,  I  have  but  one  opinion  re- 
garding the  question — which  is,  that  ships  of  the  largest  class,  loaded  with  full 
cargoes  can  be  safely  lifted,  and  transported  in  the  manner  proposed  without 
subjecting  them  to  any  more  strain  than  they  would  undergo  during  a  sea  pas- 
sage, and  in  fact  much  less  fatigue  than  they  would  encounter  during  gales  of 
wind  such  as  ships  are  at  times  subjected  to  in  all  oceans  of  the  world.  I  trust 
you  will  be  enabled  to  push  your  work  to  a  speedy  and  successful  issue.  Your 
ship-railway  would  largely  develop  trade  in  this  quarter  of  the  globe,  and 
would  also  increase  shipments  and  traffic  from  the  Pacific  coast. 

"  Very  truly  yours,  A.  K.  MILLER." 


"  Washington,  June  25,  1885. 
"E.  L.  CORTHELL,  ESQ. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Your  letter  of  the  15th  inst.  came  duly  to  hand.  Sickness 
and  excess  of  business  must  be  my  excuse  for  delay  in  answering. 

"  In  reply  to  your  questions,  I  would  state  that  I  was  manager  and  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Marine  Railway  at  Nassau,  N.  P.,  Bahamas,  for  ten  years,  and 
during  that  time — as  near  as  I  can  remember — I  hauled  out  and  repaired  be- 
tween 800  and  900  vessels,  about  one-third  of  which  were  steamers,  and  perhaps 
one-fifth  of  them  loaded. 

"  As  we  charged  so  much  per  ton  for  cargo  on  board,  as  far  as  practicable  the 
vessels  were  discharged  before  being  taken  out. 

"  My  experience  was  that  it  was  easier  and  safer  to  take  out  a  loaded  vessel 
than  one  in  ballast.  The  railway  was  about  800  feet  long,  and  similar  in  all 
respects  to  your  model,  the  principle  being  the  same.  There  was  not  one  dollar's 
damage  done  to  any  vessel  in  hauling  out  while  I  had  charge  of  the  railway. 

"  This,  I  believe,  answers  all  your  questions. 

"  Yours  respectfully,  EPES  SARGENT, 

"  338  Penna.  Avenue." 

The  address  delivered  by  the  author,  August  26,  1885,  before  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  on  "  The 
Interoceanic  Problem  and  its  Scientific  Solution  "  has  brought  many 
letters  from  various  parts  of  the  world  confirming  its  statements. 
The  following  is  characteristic  of  these  letters  ;  it  is  from  a  gentle- 


55 

man  who  is  considered  as  an  authority  in  mechanical  engineering, 
and  is  a  prominent  writer  on  subjects  kindred  to  the  ship-railway, 
having  been  selected  to  write  several  important  articles  in  Spon's 
Dictionary  of  Engineering,  on  Mechanical  Engineering  subjects. 

[TRANSLATION.] 

"  Lausanne,  Oct.  6,  1885. 
"  MR.  E.  L.  CORTHELL,,  Civil  Engineer,  New  York. 

"  SIR  : — I  have  to  thank  you  for  the  honor  you  have  done  me  by  sending  me  a 
copy  of  your  address  before  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  on  '  The  Interoceanic  Problem  and  its  Scientific  Solution.' 

"  I  see  with  great  interest  that  you  and  Mr.  Eadsmeet  with  approval  and  sup- 
port in  the  bold  project  of  an  interoceanic  passage  of  which  you  are  the  pro- 
moters. 

"  The  science  you  have  displayed,  the  correctness  of  your  principles  and  the 
breadth  of  your  views  lead  me  to  hope  that  you  will  be  enabled  to  accomplish 
this  great  work. 

"  As  you  have  said,  it  is  necessary  only  to  develop  and  perfect  by  all  the 
mechanical  resources  which  the  science  of  the  present  day  possesses — what  has 
already  been  done  under  other  forms  on  a  smaller  scale. 

"  This  will  not  be  the  first  time  that  your  country  has  shown  to  the  world 
what  grand  enterprises  can  be  accomplished  by  a  young  and  enterprising  na- 
tion full  of  life  and  faith.  Accept,  sir,  the  expression  of  my  high  considera- 
tion. J.  GAUDARD." 

As  to  the  comparative  cost  of  transportation  by  ship  canal  and 
ship-railway,  the  proofs  can  be  easily  adduced  that  the  latter  is 
the  least  expensive.  In  discussing  this  subject  of  economy  of 
the  ship- railway,  we  will  divide  it  into  two  parts,  the  theoretical  and 
tint  practical.  The  following  is  abstracted  from  the  paper  on  "  Canals 
and  Railroads,  Ship  Canals  and  Ship-Railways,"  presented  by  the 
author  to  the  Annual  Convention  of  the  American  Society  of  Civil 
Engineers,  June  25,  1885  : 

"  The  boat  or  steamer  in  its  passage  through  the  water  in  a  re- 
"  stricted  channel  creates  a  hill  up  which  it  is  constantly  climbing. 
"  The  more  rapid  the  speed  the  steeper  the  hill.  Thus  the  boat  is 
"  absolutely  compelled  to  move  at  a  very  slow  speed  ;  in  fact,  it 
"  would  be  almost  impossible  to  attain  in  a  narrow  and  shallow  canal 
"  its  normal  ocean  speed." 

Proof  of  the  above  is  found  in  the  well  known  valuable  work  on 
Naval  Architecture  by  J.  Scott  Russell,  and  the  following  extracts 
are  from  chapters  31  and  32  of  that  work  : 

"  The  water  excavated  from  the  way  of  the  ship  causes  a  con- 
"  tinual  accumulation  of  water  in  the  region  of  the  canal,  towards 
"  which  the  ship  is  moving. 

"  If  the  wave  travel  ahead  of  the  ship,  only  one-fourth  of  the  space 
"  of  the  ship,  the  accumulation  will  be  quadrupled  ;  one-eighth  will 
"  make  it  eight-fold  and  so  on,  until  the  progress  of  the  ship  becomes 
"  extremely  difficult,  or  impossible. 

"  This  is  what  constantly  takes  place,  as  the  rise  of  the  ship  and 
'  the  pace  in  a  narrow  and  shallow  canal  become  greater.  Practical 


56 


"  working  at  high  speed  becomes,  not  difficult  or  costly,  but  imprac- 
ticable.    *     *     *     * 

"  The  consequences  of  this  rapid  increase  of  head  accumulation, 
"  which  takes  place  as  the  speed  of  the  wave  in  advance  of  the  ves- 
"  sel  diminishes,  are  very  serious.  First,  it  throws  the  ship's  head 
"  up  out  of  trim  ;  next,  it  increases  the  pressure  of  water  on  her  bow  ; 
"  third,  it  makes  her  travel  up-hill  ;  fourth,  it  produces  a  backward 
"  current  along  her  sides.  And  these  hindrances  to  speed  accumu- 
"  late  rapidly — much  more  rapidly  than  as  the  square  of  the  resist- 
"  ance,  until  the  amount  may  become  insuperable  ;  that  is,  many 

"  times  the  resistance  due   to   the   law  of  the  square  of  the  speed. 
*  *  *  * 

"  It  is  now  necessary  to  notice  the  complfeientary  effect  to  that  of 
"  accumulation  in  advance  of  the  vessel  ;  it  is  subsidence  of  water 
"  astern.  It  being  known  that  the  excavated  water  is  sent  on  in  ad- 
"  vance  of  the  vessel,  it  becomes  plain  that  the  channel  out  of  which 
"  this  water  has  been  taken  must  have  its  height  lowered  by  the  sub- 
"  sidence  of  the  water  into  the  vacant  canal  out  of  which  the  ship 
"  has  been  drawn.  *  *  *  * 

"  Not  only  is  the  section  of  water-way  affected  by  head  accumula- 
"  tion,  but  the  skin  of  the  ship  is  affected  by  it,  as  the  additional 
"  head  and  hollow  give  rise  to  an  increased  speed  of  water,  running 
"  from  stem  to  stern,  causing  additional  friction. 

"  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  these  last  conditions  do  not 
"  affect  sea-going  ships  in  their  ordinary  duty.  But  in  the  navigation 
"  of  shallow  waters,  rivers  like  those  of  India,  ship  canals  and  all 
"sorts  of  inland  navigation,  they  are  all  important." 

In  reference  to  the  practical  part  of  this  subject,  the  records  of 
canals  and  railways  are  full  of  evidence  to  show  that  the  theoretical 
reasons  above  given  have  been  at  work  during  the  last  fifty  years 
reducing  the  cost  of  transportation  on  railways  and  preventing  any 
reduction  on  barge  and  ship  canals.  Jn  a  report  before  a  select 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  canals,  Mr.  James  Allport, 
who  was  for  many  years  manager  of  the  Midland  Railway  Company, 
testified  particularly  in  regard  to  the  transportation  of  coal.  He 
stated  :  "In  thirty  years  the  railway-borne  coal  into  London  has  in- 
"  creased  from  377,000  tons  in  1852  to  6,546,000  in  1882."  Also,  that 
the  amount  of  sea-borne  coal  to  London  remained  nearly  stationary 
during  that  time  and  that  "  during  the  whole  of  the  years  of  canal- 
"  borne  coal  into  London,  although  the  canals  had  independent  routes 
"  not  under  the  control  of  railways,  the  total  of  the  canal-borne  coal 
"was  7,964  tons  against  railway-borne  coals  6,750,000."  The  fol- 
lowing is  his  opinion  in  general  :  "  I  an  quite  sure  of  this, 
"  and  I  say  this  after  upwards  of  forty  years'  experience  as  a  railway 
"manager,  that  the  canals  cannot  compete  with  the  railways, 
"whatever  they  do." 

Canal  construction  has  been  nearly  discontinued  in  England,  and 
he  states  as  a  fact  as  follows  : 

"  I  do  not   remember  a  single  canal  being  constructed  during  the 


57 

"  whole  of  my  railway  career,  unless  it  be  some  short  branch  of  a  few 
"  miles  in  length." 

From  carefully  prepared  tables  of  canal  and  railway  transportation, 
we  find  that  in  every  instance  on  canals,  and  even  rivers,  in  England 
and  France,  the  cost  of  "  conducting  transportation  "  is  greater  than 
it  is  on  many  first-class  railroads. 

In  reference  to  canals  in  the  United  States,  the  latest  report  of  the 
Census  Bureau,  based  on  the  census  of  1880,  "  Vol.  IV,  Transporta- 
tion," is  very  suggestive.  The  following  extracts  are  taken  from  it : 
Page  729,  "  sketches  of  the  abandoned  canals  of  the  country  are 
given,  together  with  a  supplemental  table  which,  in  a  measure,  shows 
the  influence  of  railroad  competition  upon  these  great  works  of  the 
past  generation.  Adding  together  the 

totals  of  the  operating  and  abandoned  canals,  as  shown  in  tables  one 
and  two,  we  have  a  grand  total  of  4,468.60  miles  of  canal.  *      *      * 
Of  these  1,953.56   miles  are  now  abandoned  and  a  large  portion  of 
the  remaining  2,515.04  miles  is  not  paying  expenses.     This  is  largely 
-due    to  railroad  competition.  In    New 

York  State,  356.66  miles  of  lateral  canals,  costing  $10,235,314  have 
been  abandoned.  In  Pennsylvania  447  miles  are  abandoned,  costing 
$12,745,780.  In  Ohio,  205  miles,  costing  $3,000,000  have  been 
abandoned.  Indiana  with  the  aid  of  her  creditors,  constructed  379 
miles  of  canal  in  1851,  costing  $8,325,262,  all  of  which  were 
abandoned  upon  the  construction  of  railroads  along  the  lines  of  the 
canals.  The  most  enterprising  and  sagacious  men  in  the  country 
were  engaged  in  projecting  and  building  these  canals,  but  their 
expectations  with  regard  to  them  were  never  realized." 

The  Ohio  Canal,  running  the  whole  length  of  that  State,  is  shortly 
to  be  abandoned,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Engineer  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works  ;  it  not  being  self-sustaining. 

The  average  ratio  of  expenses  to  the  gross  receipts  an  all  the 
canals  operated  by  the  State  and  corporations  in  the  United  States  is 
sixy-five  per  cent.,  which  is  greater  than  that  of  first-class  railways. 

The  following  extracts  in  reference  to  the  cost  of  transportation 
by  canal  and  railway  in  this  country  are  from  two  prominent  and 
experienced  railroad  managers  : 

"  If  the  tonnage  which  passed  shrough  this  canal"  (Erie)  "was 
"delivered  for  transportation  to  the  West  Shore  Railway,"  (New 
York,  West  Shore  and  Buffalo)  "  it  could  be  hauled  and  delivered 
"  more  cheaply  than  by  the  water  route,  and  in  less  than  one-quarter 
"of  the  time  now  required." 

*  *  *  *  tt  ••'.-  -/.-  •::• 

"  The  contest  between  the  canal  and  the  rail  has  always  interested 
*  me.  Ten  years  since  I  became  satisfied  that  the  abandonment  of 
'  medium-sized  canals,  such  as  the  Erie,  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
'  and  Delaware  and  Raritan,  would  simply  be  a  matter  of  time. 
<  *  *  In  regard  to  the  Erie,  two  classes  of  expenses  are 

'  rarely  noted  when  a  camparison  is  made  with   the   rail  ;  one  being 


58 

"  the  maintenance  of  way,  which  the  State  pays  for,  or  rather  the 
'*  increased  taxes  of  the  people  ;  the  other  a  depreciation  and  renewal 
1  of  equipment,  which  the  boatman  does  not  count,  as  for  some  years 
'  there  have  been  no  renewals  and  but  slight  repairs.  The  only 
'expense  returned  is  that  incurred  in  actually  running  the  boats, 
'  equivalent  to  the  railroad  charge  of  '  conducting  transportation  '. 
'  Now,  making  the  necessary  allowance,  the  West  Shore  can  transport 
'  at  least  thirty  per  cent,  cheaper  than  the  canal." 

If  we  take  up  the  subject  of  ship  canals,  we  find  the  same  resistances 
to  overcome,  and  a  great  increase  of  expense  with  the  increase  of 
speed.  In  Volume  66,  page  162,  Proceedings,  Institution  Civil 
Engineers,  Great  Britain,  the  following  statement  is  made  : 

"  The  Warrior  "  steamed  through  the  Suez  Canal  in  1870  in  twelve 
hours  fifty  minutes,  or  at  the  rate  of  6.85  knots  per  hour.  She  was 
380  feet  long  and  her  midship  section  was  1,219  feet,  with  an 
indicated  horse  power  of  5,469,  and  with  a  speed  upon  the  sea  of 
14  J  knots  per  hour.  The  retarding  current  which  the  Warrior  was 
obliged  to  overcome  was  nearly  11  feet  per  second." 

On  page  261,  the  statement  is  made  by  Captain  John  Steele  from 
his  own  experience,  that  with  a  ship  drawing  20  feet,  a  speed  of 
more  than  4  knots  an  hour  would  result  in  mishaps.  The  speed 
through  the  canal  is  restricted  by  rules  to  five  knots  an  hour.  In  a 
paper  recently  read  before  the  Austrian  Society  of  Engineers,  on  the 
Suez  Canal  and  its  intended  improvements,  it  is  stated  : 

"  The  long  time  occupied  in  passing  the  canal  is  a  serious  objection. 
"  The  maximum  speed  allowed  is  five  knots  per  hour.  This,  and 
"  the  time  lost  in  turn-outs,  makes  the  trip  a  long  one  ;  and  greater 
"  speed,  which  would  be  better  for  steering  the  vessel,  is  prohibited 
"  on  account  of  the  dangerous  wave  action  on  the  shores.  Notwith- 
"  standing  these  precautions,  these  slopes  are  damaged  continually^ 
"  although  a  considerable  length  of  the  slopes  has  been  protected  by 
"  rip-rap.  The  area  of  the  cross-section  of  the  canal  is  3,956  square 
"  feet.  This  is  too  small  for  vessels  with  a  displacement  of  645 
"  square  feet,  and  is  the  reason  for  running  many  vessels  ashore, 
"  (From  1870  to  1883,  eleven  per  cent,  of  all  vessels  went  into  the 
"  shore.)  These  stranded  vessels  are  pulled  off  by  three  powerful 
"  steam  tugs,  at  the  expense  of  the  Canal  Company  ;  this  work 
"  usually  consumes  five  hours." 

Oh  the  Welland  Ship  Canal  in  Canada,  the  average  speed  is  one 
mile  per  hour,  and  it  is  the  same  on  the  North  Holland  Ship  Canal 
from  the  Helder  to  Amsterdam.*  The  estimated  time  of  passage 
through  the  projected  Huron  and  Ontario  Ship  Canal,  100  miles 
long,  wsisfvur  days.\ 

Numerous  experiments  on  railroads,  on  the  ocean,  and  on  barge  and 


*  See  Internal  Commerce  United  States,  1885,  page  494. 

f  See  Report  New  York  Produce  Exchange,  1872-1873,  page  66. 


59 

ship  canals,  show  that  generally  the  increase  of  resistance  to  railway 
trains  is  very  small  with  the  increase  of  speed  ;  to  vessels  on  the  ocean 
as  the  square  of  the  velocity,  and  in  the  restricted  channels  of  barge 
and  ship  canals,  as  the  cubes  of  the  velocity  ;  e.  g.  If  ther  esistance  is 
ten  pounds  per  ton  at  two  miles  per  hour  on  a  railroad,  it  would  be 
nearly  the  same  at  four  miles  per  hour  on  the  railroad  ;  on  the  ocean 
forty  pounds,  and  eighty  pounds  on  the  barge  or  ship  canal. 

Having  stated  the  theoretical  and  practical  proofs  in  regard  to  the 
cost  of  transportation  on  railroads  and  canals,  let  us  extend  the 
development  of  the  railroad  to  the  greater  work  of  transportation  by 
ship-railway,  and  we  will  find  proofs  of  the  statement  that  a  still 
greater  decrease  in  cost  of  moving  goods  will  result. 

Ordinary  sea-going  steamers  transport  freights  dt  a  cost  of  about  0.5 
mill  per  ton  per  mile,  running  expenses  alone  considered,  and  not  in- 
cluding interest,  insurance,  depreciation  of  steamer,  and  profit,  or  0.3 
mill  by  the  best  examples  of  sea-going  steamers.  The  cost  on  a  ship 
canal  at  two  miles  per  hour  (assumed  as  the  economical  speed),  as 
against  twelve  miles  per  hour  on  the  ocean,  and  with  the  same 
power  required,  would  increase  the  cost  six  times,  or  to  3.0  mills 
per  ton  mile.  The  cost  of  hauling  on  a  railroad  on  the  same 
basis  would  be  about  0.6  mill — one  fifth  as  much  only.  It  may 
be  stated  broadly  that  railroad  transportation  in  this  country  has 
been  so  far  reduced  in  cost  as  to  make  it  possible  to  haul  freight 
at  about  four  mills  per  ton  per  mile  including  all  expenses,  even 
the  terminal  and  other  handlings  of  local  as  well  as  through  freights, 
also  expenses  of  repairs  and  renewals,  general  expenses  of  manage- 
ment, and  the  many  other  charges  that  go  to  make  up  the  details 
of  the  cost  of  transportation.  The  cost  of  handling  freight  is  not 
perhaps  appreciated  by  even  railroad  managers,  for,  while  immense 
and  continual  reductions  are  being  made  in  the  cost  of  hauling, 
but  little  advance  has  been  made  in  reducing  the  cost  at  terminals 
and  stations.  It  costs  as  much  to  handles,  ton  of  goods  at  the  New 
York  terminals  as  it  does  to  haul  it  to  Albany  or  Philadelphia. 
Another  important  item  in  the  cost  of  ordinary  railroad  transpor- 
tation is  the  labor.  An  army  of  employees  is  required  for  all  the 
various  duties  devolving  upon  railroads  ;  hundreds  of  returns  and 
reports  require  a  large  clerical  force.  The  relations  and  connec- 
tions with  other  roads  in  cars,  goods,  back  charges,  &c.,  make  a 
large  amount  of  work  necessary.  The  assorting  of  goods  for  differ- 
ent destinations,  the  handling  of  cars  on  sidings,  and  in  terminal 
and  division  yards  require  not  only  a  variety  of  labor,  but  expen- 
sive power  also. 

The  expense  of  doing  all  this  work  is  however  so  systematically 
performed  and  recorded,  on  the  best  railroads  of  the  country,  that 
the  cost  of  the  various  items  is  fully  known.  We  need  not  have 
further  to  do  with  it  here,  but  enter  at  once  upon  the  Ship-Rail- 
way method,  and  its  great  advantages  over  the  ordinary  railroad. 


60 


The   estimated  cost  of  operating  the  Ship- Railway  is  as  follows 
.at  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  : 

First.  The  maintenance  of  the  permanent  way.  The  cost  of  main- 
tenance in  this  country  on  a  first  class  double  track  railroad, 
including  sidings,  yards,  buildings,  &c.,in  other  words,  every- 
thing but  rolling  stock,  is  about  $1700  per  mile  of  railroad, 
sidings  being  at  least  25  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  The  wear  on 
the  rails  and  ties,  switches  and  frogs,  is  constant  and  expen- 
sive. On  the  ship-railway,  the  speed  being  slower,  the  line 
straight,  the  rails  heavier,  and  the  whole  superstructure  more 
nearly  perfect,  there  will  be  much  less  wear  and  none  of  the 
expense  arising  in  this  country  from  frost  and  snow.  There 
is,  however,  a  greater  rainfall,  probably  more  deterioration  of 
materials  in  wooden  structures,  and  an  increased  cost  of  labor ; 
also,  50  per  cent,  more  track  to  be  kept  up.  It  will  be  fair  to 
estimate  the  maintenance  at  $2500  per  mile,  or  a  total  for  the 
whole  distance  (134  miles)  of  ...... 


Second.  The  cost  of  operating  the  terminals,  from  a  careful 
detailed  estimate  of  cost  of  labor,  coal,  materials  and  repairs, 
will  be  $350  per  day,  qr  for  365  days,  $127.750  ;  and  for  two 
terminals,  per  annum,  ........ 

Third.  The  cost  of  operating  the  five  ship-railway  turn-tables, 
at  $300  per  day 

Fourth.  The  motive  power  for  hauling  vessels,  per  annum, 
4,000,000  tons  at  0.52  mill  per  ton  per  mile,  . 

Fifth.     Telegraph  expenses,         .         .         . 

Sixth.     Incidentals,  ......... 

Seventh.     General  expenses,         .         .         . 


$335,000 

255,500 
109,500 

278,720 
20,000 
40,000 
50,000 


Total, 


.     $1,088,720 


Add  for  other  expenses  and  contingencies,  10  per  cent. ;  the 
total  then  reaching  $1,197,592,  or  in  round  numbers,  $1,200,000, 
or  30  cents  per  ton  on  4,000,000  tons. 

The  cost  of  operating  the  Ship-Railway,  may  be  ascertained  by 
another  method,  as  follows  : 

The  cost  per  ton  per  mile  on  the  best  railroads,  is  not  over  3 
mills  per  ton  per  mile  for  through  freight.  From  this  should  first 
be  deducted  the  cost  of  such  work  as  does  not  pertain  to  the 
Ship- Railway.  All  such  items  of  cost  appear  on  page  81,  Penna. 
Railroad  Report  of  1885. 

Deducting  irrelevant  items  we  can  properly  reduce  the  cost  48 
per  cent.,  or  to  1.56  mills  ;  but  a  still  further  reduction  is  proper. 
Much  larger  loads  are  carried,  the  ratio  of  paying  to  non-paying 
loads  is  greater,  the  frictional  resistance  per  ton  to  the  motive 
power  is  reduced  at  least  30  per  cent.,  the  rails  are  straight,  the 
track  perfect,  the  grades  light,  and  greater  results  are  obtained 
with  less  fuel  and  service. 

The   history  of    railway    transportation    has    conclusively  shown, 


61 

that  "  the  cost  of  railway  transport  diminishes  as  the  Unit  oj  dis- 
patch is  increased." 

The  average  paying  load  on  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  in 
1883,  was  199  tons,  the  average  non-paying  load,  350  tons,  total 
549  tons.  The  average  load  on  the  Ship-  Railway  may  be  assumed 
at  1,800  tons  paying  load,  or  3,000  tons  total  load  ;  or  about  nine 
times  as  much  paying  load  as  on  the  railroads.  The  above  favor- 
able conditions  allow  us  to  reduce  the  cost  to  /  mill  per  ton  per 
mile. 

Fifty  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  operating  is  labor,  which  should  be 
doubled  for  a  tropical  country,  increasing  the  cost  to  1.5  mills,  or 
for  134  miles,  20.1  cents,  which  it  should  be  remembered  is  the  total 
cost,  not  simply  the  cost  of  carriage. 

The  cost  at  the  terminals  will  be  as  follows  : 

If  ten  ships  are  handled  daily,  of  1,500  tons  each,  the  labor  at  the 

dock  will  be  per  day,  .  .  .  .  .     $174.00* 

The  coal,  stores,  wear  and  tear  of  machinery,  .  .  .  150.00 

Total,  .  .  .•         ...  .  .     $324.00 

To  cover  contingencies,  say,  .  .  .         $350  00 

Or,  per  ship,  .  .  .  .  .  .35.00 

Or,  per  ton,  .  ...  2c. 

Or,  for  two  terminals,  ..... 


The  cost  of  operating  the  five  turn-tables  in  making  changes  of 
direction  (which,  however,  will  not  be  more  than  the  cost  of  operat- 
ing the  sidings  on  railroads)  will  be  two  cents  per  ton  for  all. 

The  total  cost  per  ton  will  therefore  be,  20.1  cents  plus  4.66  cents, 
plus  2  cents,  equal  to  26.76  cents.  Adding,  however,  15  per  cent,  to 
cover  any  unexpected  expenses,  we  have  a  total  cost  of  about  jo 
cents  per  ton. 

This  estimate,  though  made  on  an  entirely  different  basis,  agrees 
with  our  previous  statement. 

In  comparing  the  Tehuantepec  Ship-Railway  with  the  Ship  Canal, 
the  cost  of  construction  will  be  $75,000,000  for  the  Ship-Railway, 
and  probably  $400,000,000  for  the  Panama  Canal,  and  $200,000,000 
for  the  Nicaragua  Canal  (Major  McFarland's  estimate  for  the  latter 
was  $140,000,000  with  labor  at  $1.00  per  day,  while  the  average  cost 
on  the  Panama  Canal  is  $2.00.)  The  cost  of  maintenance  will  also 
be  much  less. 

The  road-bed  of  the  Railway  is  above  the  water,  and  is  nowhere 
subject  to  the  dangerous  floods  or  engulfing  slides  from  immense 
cuts.  The  road-bed  is  50  feet  in  width,  whereas  the  prism  of  the 
canal  must  be  at  least  200  feet  wide,  from  which  all  washed-in 
material  must  be  removed  by  very  expensive  means. 

The  Suez  Canal,  where  the  rain-fall  is  about  2  inches  per  annum, 
required  in  1883,  in  the  canal  proper,  the  dredging  of  781,282  cubic 
yards.  The  cost  for  cleaning  the  canal  was  about  2,000,000  francs 
($400,000).  The  total  expenses  for  maintenance  and  working  the 
canal,  were  §2.784,869.  The  material  in  this  canal  can  be.  cheaply 


62 

thrown  out  on  either  side  by  the  dredges,  and  only  40  per  cent,  of 
the  distance  is  through  cuts  over  10  feet  high  above  the  water  line. 

The  expense  at  Panama  will  be  largely  in  excess  of  that  at  Suez, 
as  the  prism  of  the  canal  will  be  exposed  to  a  rain-fall  of  about  120 
inches  per  annum,  falling  on  enormous  clay  slopes,  one  of  them  over 
400  feet  in  height. 

At  Nicaragua  the  length  is  181^-  miles,  about  30  miles  only  of 
which  is  open  water  of  full  depth.  The  remainder  is  a  dredged, 
excavated,  embanked,  or  walled  channel,  with  several  locks  to  be 
maintained.  The  cost  of  towing  sailing  vessels  through  either  canal 
will  be  considerably  more  expensive  than  hauling  them  on  the  Ship- 
Railway  ;  and  the  cost  of  propelling  a  steamer  by  her  own  power  will 
be,  as  has  been  previously  shown,  3.0  mills  per  ton  per  mile,  as 
against  say  0.5  mill  per  ton  per  mile  transported  by  the  Ship-Rail- 
way. 

The  history  of  transportation  in  the  last  half  century  proves  con- 
clusively the  vast  superiority  of  the  railway  over  the  canal  in  speed, 
economy  and  convenience. 

The  inevitable  development  of  the  railway  in  the  next  half  cen- 
tury will  be  as  marvelous -as  in  the  past.  These  results  will  be 
obtained  by  improvements  in  the  road-bed  and  its  superstructure, 
in  alignment,  in  the  increase  of  load  and  power  of  the  motors  that 
haul  it,  and  in  lessening  the  expense  of  handling  goods  at  stations 
and  terminals. 

All  these  advantages  the  ship-railway  method  possesses  in  a 
greater  degree  than  an  ordinary  railway  could  ever  expect  to  have. 

The  same  causes  that  have  dried  up  the  beds  of  the  ordinary 
canals,  whenever  railroads  have  come  into  competition  with  them, 
will  produce  similar  results  wherever  ship-railways  shall  compete 
with  ship  canals. 

George  Stephenson  set  in  motion  forces  that  have  already  proven 
more  beneficent  factors  in  the  world  than  his  wildest  fancies  ever 
pictured  ;  but  those  forces  will  yet  produce  results  that  will  far  out- 
reach all  that  has  been  hitherto  accomplished.  We  are  but  entering 
upon  the  era  of  cheap  and  rapid  transportation.  The  principles 
that  have  proven  most  potent  in  the  past,  in  developing  the  ordinary 
railway,  and  in  reducing  the  cost  of  transportation,  will  be  most 
efficiently  applied  in  the  ship-railway. 


63 


CHAPTER  VI. 

DISTANCES  SAVED— TONNAGE  EXPECTED— GOVERNMENT  STATUS  OF  THE  EN- 
TERPRISE—BENEFITS TO  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  MEXICO  DURING 
CONSTRUCTION-GENERAL  RESULTS. 


The  following  distance  tables  were  computed  by  the  United  States 
Coast  Survey,  and  show  the  great  advantage  of  the  Tehuantepec 
route  over  present  routes  : 

TABLE  OF  COMPARATIVE  DISTANCES  IN  STATUTE  MILES. 

Excess  over 

Total  Tehuantepec 

Distance.  Route. 
FROM  NEW  YORK  TO  HONG  KONG. 

ViaCapeHorn 20,379  miles.     8,777  miles. 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 16,945     "  5,343     " 

Suez  Canal 13,596     "  1,994     " 

PanamaR.R 12,953     "  1,351     " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 11,602     " 

NEW  YORK  TO  YOKOHAMA. 

ViaCapeHorn  19,802  "  9,796  " 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 18,085  "  8,079  " 

Suez  Canal  15,527  "  5,521  " 

PanamaR.R 11,256  "  1,250  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 10,006  "  

NEW  YORK  TO  AUCKLAND,  N.  Z. 

Via  Suez  Canal 16,871  "  7,447 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 16,719  "  7,295 

Cape  Horn 13,890  "  4,466 

PanamaR.R 10,305  "  881 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec ....9,424  " 

NEW  YORK  TO  MELBOURNE. 

ViaCapeHorn  15,215  "  4,150 

SuezCanal .....15,171  "  4,106 

Capeof  Good  Hope 15,019  "  3,954 

PanamaR.R 11,826  "  761 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 11,065  "  

NEW  YORK  TO  HONOLULU. 

ViaCapeHorn 15,826  "  9,163 

PanamaR.R 7,939  "  1,276 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 6,663  " 

NEW  YORK  TO  SAN  FRANCISCO. 

ViaCapeHorn 15,687  "  10,797 

Panama  R.  R 6,063  "  1,173 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 4,890  "  

LIVERPOOL  TO  HONG  KONG. 

Via  Cape  Horn  20,606  "  5,353 

PanamaR.R 16,471  "  1,218 

Cape  of  Good  Hope .,.15,722  '•  469 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec.... 15,253  "  -  


TABLE  OF  COMPARATIVE  DISTANCES  IN  STATUTE  MILES. 


Total 
Distance. 


Excess  over 
Tehuantepec 
Koute. 


LIVERPOOL  TO  YOKOHAMA. 

Via  Cape  Horn 19,400  miles.     5,945  miles. 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 17,653  "  4,198  " 

Panama  R.  R 14,540  "  1,085  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  ... 13,455  "  " 

LIVERPOOL  TO  AUCKLAND,  N.  Z. 

Via  Cape  of  Good  Hope 16,221  "  3,412  " 

Suez  Canal 14,645  "  ],836  " 

Cape  Horn 13,897  "  1,088  " 

PanamaR.R 13,312  "  503  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 12,809  "  ....  " 

LIVERPOOL  TO  SAN  FRANCISCO. 

ViaCapeHorn 16,552  "  8,250  " 

PanamaR.R 8,885  "  609  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 8,276  "  " 

NEW  ORLEANS  TO  HONG  KONG. 

ViaCapeHorn 20,804  "  10,531  «' 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 17,485  "  7,212  " 

Suez  Canal 15,108  "  4,835  " 

PanamaR.R 12,308  "  2,035  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 10,273  '  ....  " 

NEW  ORLEANS  TO  YOKOHAMA. 

ViaCapeHorn 20,227  "  11,590  " 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 18,625  "  9,988  " 

SuezCanal 17,039  "  8,402  " 

PanamaR.R 10,611  "  1,974  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 8,637  "  ...  " 

NEW  ORLEANS  TO  AUCKLAND,  N.  Z. 

Via  Suez  Canal 18,381  '  10,286  " 

Cape  of  Good  Hope. 17,259  '  9,164  " 

Cape  Horn 14,314  '  6,219  " 

PanamaR.R 9,659  '  1,564  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 8,095  '  " 

NEW  ORLEANS  TO  MELBOURNE. 

Via  Suez  Canal 16,683  "  6,947  " 

Cape  Horn 15,640  "  5,904  " 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 15,560  "  5,824  " 

Panama  R,  R 11,181  "  1,445  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 9,736 

NEW  ORLEANS  TO  HONOLULU. 

ViaCapeHorn 16,251  "  10,917  " 

PanamaR.R 7,294  "  1,960  " 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 5,334  " 

NEW  ORLEANS  TO  SAN  FRANCISCO. 

ViaCapeHorn 16,112  "  12,551  " 

PanamaRR 5,418  "  1,857  •• 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 3,561  "  " 


65 


TABLE  OF  COMPARATIVE  DISTANCES  IN  STATUTE  MILES. 

Excess  over 

Total  Tehuantepec 

Distance.  Eoute. 
NEW  YORK  TO  VALPARAISO. 

Via  Cape  Horn       10,051  miles.  3,682  miles. 

PanamaR.R  5,417     "  ....      " 

Istlimus  of  Teliuantepec 6,369     "  " 


NEW  ORLEANS  TO  VALPARAISO. 

Via  Cape  Horn 10,476 

Panama  R.  R 4,772 

Isthmus  of  Teliuantepec 5,040 


5,436 


On  these  eighteen  routes  the  aggregate  saving  in  distance  by  the 
Tehuantepec  Route  is  over  125,000  miles. 

The  sailing  distances  saved  are  about  fifty  per  cent  greater  than 
those  given  in  the  tables,  the  latter  being  steamer  distances. 

The  great  advantage  of  this  route  is  still  more  appreciated  from 
the  fact  that  it  saves  nearly  two  and  one-half  months  time  to  nearly 
every  vessel  which  now  goes  around  Cape  Horn,  and  about  $12,000 
on  the  cargo. 

During  the  last  few  years  there  have  been  made  several  estimates 
of  the  tonnage  that  may  be  expected  to  pass  through  a  ship  canal  or 
over  a  ship  railway.  The  following  table  is  made  up  from  informa- 
tion taken  from  reliable  sources.  It  agrees  very  closely  with  that 
made  in  1879  by  the  statisticians  of  the  Panama  Canal  Congress: 

Detailed  statement  of  Tonnage  einectei  over  the  Shin-Railway  in  1889, 


HJTESBY  WHICH  COMMERCE  MOVES. 
Panama  Railroad 

Tons  1883. 

Actual  Tonnage 
carried  by  steam 
and  sail  on  routes 
longer  than  via 
Tehuantepec. 

77  958 

Tons  1889. 

Estimated  from 
ratio  of  increase  of 
commerce  on  the 
routes  from  1879  to 
1883,  and  from  new 
business  to  be 
developed. 

60  000 

U.    S.    Pacific   Coast   with   Atlantic  via 
Cape   Horn  

237,341 

359,081 

Atlantic   ports   with   Countries  west   of 
Cape  Horn  

349,454 

489,135 

U.    S.    Pacific  Coast  witli  foreign  Coun- 
tries east  of  Cape  Horn  
European  Countries  with  Countries  west 
of  Cape  Horn   other  than  U   S  

1,423,737 
1,828,621 

2,135,605 

2,285,776 

British   Columbia    (Pacific    Coast)    with 
Europe             

125,000 

235,000 

Slow    bulky    freights    now    going    over 
Transcontinental  lines      .        . 

400,000 

600,000 

Fifty   per  cent,   of    tonnage   now  going 
from  Asiatic  Countries  to  Europe  via 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  
New    trade    to    be    developed    by    Ship 
Railway  between  Gulf  Ports  of   U.  S. 
n.nH  MHVIPO  and  Pacific  Ocean.  . 

400,000 

400,000 
1.000,000 

Total 


4,842,111 


7,564,597 


66 

This  amount  may  not  be  realized  immediately  after  the  opening  of 
the  railway,  but  we  are  confident  that  it  will  be  developed  in  a  few 
years.  It  is  safe  to  assume  that  at  the  outset  the  Ship-Railway  will 
carry  at  least  3,000,000  tons  which  will  probably  increase  to  6,000,000 
within  five  years  from  the  time  of  opening  the  railway  for  business, 
A  special  committee  of  the  Board  of  Trade  of  San  Francisco,  in 
1880,  stated  : 

"Ten  years  since  the  estimated  tonnage  that  would  use  the 
"American  Interoceanic  Canal  was  placed,  by  the  best  official 
"  authority  in  the  country,  at  4,100,000  tons  per  annum.  Careful 
"  estimates  made  by  your  committee  place  it  at  5,250,000  tons  at 
"this  time." 

The  following  are  the  provisions  of  the  Ship-Railway  concession 
granted  by  the  Mexican  Republic  to  Mr.  James  B.  Eads,  May 
28,  1881  : 

It  provides  for  the  construction  and  operation,  for  ninety-nine  years, 
of  a  ship-railway  with  its  corresponding  lines  of  telegraph  across  the 
Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec.  The  right  of  way  is  granted  eight  hun- 
dred metres  wide  (2624  feet,  or  nearly  half  a  mile)  across  the 
Isthmus.  This  width  is  reduced  in  town  lands  to  four  hundred 
metres,  and  is  increased  where  stations  are  necessary  to  sixteen 
hundred  metres.  The  public  lands  within  this  belt  are  conceded 
gratis  to  the  company.  Full  authority  is  given  for  the  prompt 
condemnation  of  all  private  lands  needed.  Four  thousand  two 
hundred  square  kilometres  of  public  lands,  equal  to  a  million  acres, 
are  granted  in  aid  of  the  enterprise.  The  right  is  given  to  import, 
free  of  duty,  all  kinds  of  machinery,  instruments,  coal  and  materials- 
necessary  for  the  construction,  operation  and  maintenance  of  the 
works  during  ninety-nine  years. 

Vessels,  passengers,  and  merchandise  in  transit,  will  be  free  of  all 
kinds  of  duties,  general  as  well  as  local,  during  the  time  of  the  con- 
cession. 

The  property  and  capital  invested  in  the  enterprise,  its  bonds  and 
shares  of  stock,  are  exempted  from  all  taxation  or  contribution  of  any 
kind,  except  that  of  revenue  stamps,  the  Constitution  of  Mexico- 
prohibiting  the  release  of  the  latter  tax  by  Congress. 

Authority  is  given  to  collect  a  maximum  toll  on  each  vessel,  not 
exceeding  five  dollars  per  cubic  metre,  for  each  metre  contained  in 
a  parallelopipedon,  of  which  the  dimensions  shall  be  the  greatest 
length  and  the  greatest  breadth  of  the  vessel  measured  at  the  surface 
of  the  water,  and  her  greatest  immersed  depth.  This  would  be 
about  $8.00  per  ton  on  the  cargo  carried.  For  each  passenger 
carried  across,  a  sum  not  exceeding  $15.00  may  be  charged. 

Gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones  may  be  charged  a  maximum 
rate  not  greater  than  one  per  cent,  of  their  value. 

The  right  is  granted  to  collect  wharfage  dues  and  tonnage  dues, 
not  exceeding  $1.00  per  registered  ton. 

The  tariff  of  charges  for  telegrams,  for  a  message  of  ten  words,  not 


67 

counting  date,  direction  and  signature,   is  fifteen  cents  for  one  hun- 
dred kilometres  (  about  62  miles)  in  distance. 

The  vessels,  troops,  and  all  things  belonging  to  the  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment, including  telegraph  messages,  shall  be  carried  free. 

Passage  over  the  railway  shall  be  open  for  all  the  vessels  of  all  the 
nations  not  at  war  with  Mexico,  and  the  Republic  binds  itseif  not  to 
close  to  ocean  commerce,  during  the  term  of  the  concession,  either 
of  the  two  terminal  ports  of  the  ship-railway,  one  in  the  Gulf,  the 
other  in  the  Pacific,  except  in  case  of  war. 

The  directors,  agents,  employes  and  workmen  of  the  company 
shall  be  exempt  during  the  whole  period  of  the  concession  from 
all  military  or  civil  service,  and  considered  as  invested  with  all  the 
exemptions  and  privileges  granted  to  the  employes  and  workmen  of 
other  railways  in  the  Mexican  Republic. 

The  company,  which  may  be  organized  by  the  concessionaire, 
may  exercise  all  rights,  powers  and  privileges  in  relation  to  the  issue 
of  bonds  and  other  guarantees,  not  in  conflict  with  the  laws  of 
Mexico,  and  may  enjoy  any  concession  which  it  may  obtain  in 
Mexico  or  elsewhere,  provided  the  same  be  not  in  conflict  with  the 
provisions  of  the  concession. 

The  company  is  forbidden  to  sell,  mortgage  or  alienate,  to  any 
foreign  government  or  governments,  any  of  their  property  or 
rights  conveyed  under  this  concession  ;  but  in  consideration  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  work,  the  company  may  obtain  aid  from  any  for- 
eign government,  either  in  money  or  guarantees,  and  hypothecate 
the  net  revenues  to  it,  and  may  transport  its  mails,  ships,  property 
and  appurtenances,  free  of  charges,  and  may  reduce  the  tariffs  on  its 
commerce  and  the  prices  of  passage,  in  such  case  making  the  same 
reduction  to  the  commerce  of  Mexico. 

In  the  event  of  failure  on  the  part  of  the  company  to  comply  with 
any  such  stipulations  made  with  a  foreign  government,  such  foreign 
government  shall  have  the  right  to  enforce  its  claims  before  the 
courts  of  Mexico,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  Mexico,  but  in  no 
case  can  such  foreign  government  acquire  the  ownership  of  the 
works,  or  the  rights  emanating  therefrom. 

The  concession  provides  that  the  company  shall  be  Mexican, 
even  though  some,  or  all  of  its  shareholders,  be  foreigners,  and  shall 
be  subject  exclusively  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  tribunals  of  the  Re- 
public, in  all  matters  of  which  the  cause  and  action  may  take  place 
within  its  territory  ;  and  its  shareholders,  employes,  or  successors 
shall  not  be  permitted  to  allege,  with  regard  to  title  or  property  and 
other  matters  connected  with  the  company,  rights  as  foreigners  under 
any  pretext  whatever.  They  shall  have  those  rights,  and  the  means 
of  making  them  valid,  which  the  laws  of  the  Republic  confer  on  its 
own  citizens,  and  consequently  not  subject  to  interference  on 
the  part  of  foreign  diplomatic  agents. 

Work  on  the  railway  shall  commence  within  two  years  from  May 
ist,  1881,  and  shall  be  finished  within  twelve  years  from  the  same 
date,  no  obligation  existing  to  construct  any  definite  amount  of  the 
work  during  any  particular  year. 


68 


The  following  valuable  provisions  have  recently  been  added  to 
the  concessions  by  the  Mexican  Government  : 

First :  The  Government  of  Mexico  agrees  to  guarantee  that  one- 
third  of  the  net  revenue  of  the  company  for  fifteen  years  after  its 
railway  is  in  successful  operation  shall  amount  to  $1,250,000  per 
annum,  and  it  gives  the  right  to  the  company  to  secure  a  similar 
guarantee  to  the  amount  of  $2,500,000  in  addition,  from  one  or 
more  foreign  governments  which  may  be  disposed  to  aid  the  enter- 
prise. The  net  revenue  in  all  cases  shall  be  assumed  as  one-half  of 
the  gross  receipts  of  the  railway. 

Second  :  Authority  is  given  to  the  company  to  admit  to  the 
Board  of  Directors  members  appointed  by  the  guaranteeing  foreign 
government,  to  represent  its  interest,  equal  in  number  to  those  ap- 
pointed by  the  Government  of  Mexico,  namely  :  two-ninths  of  the 
whole  number  or  four-ninths  of  the  board  on  the  part  of  the  two 
governments.  Provision  is  made  that  when  the  net  revenue 
reaches  a  certain  amount  these  government  directors  shall  have  the 
right  to  reduce  the  tariff  of  charges,  and  with  the  sanction  of  their 
respective  governments  establish  lower  rates. 

Third  :  The  Mexican  Government  also  gives  to  the  company  the 
right  to  establish  coaling  stations  at  each  end  of  the  line  for  the 
supply  of  vessels  in  transit  over  the  railway,  with  the  right  to  import 
coal  for  this  purpose  free  of  duty. 

Fourth  :  It  extends  the  time  for  completing  the  railway  two  years 
beyond  the  terms  of  the  original  concession,  or  to  1894. 

Fifth  :  It  increases  the  original  land  grant  one  million  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  acres,  the  total  being  two  million  seven  hundred 
thousand,  about  one-half  the  area  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 

A  proposition  to  incorporate  the  "Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ship- 
Railway  Company,"  is  now  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
The  following  are  its  more  important  provisions  : 

The  Government  is  asked  to  guarantee  that  two-thirds  of  the  an- 
nual net  revenue,  for  fifteen  years  after  the  railway  is  completed  and 
in  operation,  shall  amount  to  $2,500,000  ;  the  United  States  to  make 
up  any  deficiency  in  this  amount ;  the  guarantee  not  to  take  effect 
until  a  vessel  weighing,  with  cargo,  3000  tons  has  been  taken  from  the 
water,  transported  over  the  railway  at  a  speed  of  not  less  than  six  miles 
per  hour,  and  launched  in  the  harbor  on  the  other  side  of  the  isthmus 
without  injury  to  the  railway  or  vessel  ; — this  test  to  be  made  to  the 
satisfaction  of  a  commission  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  amounts,  if  any,  advanced  under  the  guarantee  are  to 
be  refunded  to  the  Government  out  of  the  receipts  of  the  railway  ; 
the  Company  to  issue  bonds  binding  itself  to  pay  the  sums  advanced  ; 


69 

one-third  the  excess  of  annual  net  revenue  over  the  amount  of  the 
guarantee  to  be  paid  by  the  Company  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury. The  amount  advanced  is,  therefore,  a  reimbursable  loan,  for 
the  payment  of  which  the  Government  has  security  in  the  bonds  of 
the  Company  and  the  receipts  of  the  railway  until  the  whole  amount 
is  refunded.  The  Company  agrees  to  transport  during  the  fifteen 
years,  all  Government  vessels,  property,  mails  and  officials,  and 
transmit  all  Government  telegraphic  messages,  for  the  nominal  gross 
annual  sum  of  $500.  The  Company  also  agrees  that,  during  thirty 
years  after  the  completion  of  the  railway,  it  will  transport  vessels 
belonging  to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  registered  under 
its  laws,  engaged  in  coast-wise  commerce,  for  75  per  cent,  of  the 
regular  tolls  aud  charges  imposed  upon  the  commerce  of  all  other 
nations  excepting  Mexico.  The  United  States  is  to  have  the  right  to 
be  represented  by  two-ninths  in  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
Company.  When  the  annual  net  revenue  shall  exceed  to  per  cent. 
of  the  total  indebtedness,  the  Directors  of  the  United  States  and 
Mexico  may  establish  a  tariff  of  reduced  rates.  The  Company  is 
prohibited  from  transporting  any  vessels  of  war,  ammunition,  troops, 
or  contraband  of  war,  of  any  nation  at  war  with  the  United  States  or 
Mexico.  The  above  proposition  is  thus  seen  to  be  in  all  its  pro- 
visions fair  and  reasonable.  For  an  obligation  comparatively  insig- 
nificant in  amount,  the  United  States  will  secure  immense  benefits 
to  its  commerce,  its  industries  and  its  general  welfare. 

The  beneficial  effect  upon  the  manufacturing  industries  of  this 
country  will  be  felt  from  the  commencement  of  the  work.  There  will 
be  required  in  the  construction  of  the  railway  over  10,000,000  feet  of 
lumber  ;  4,000  tons  of  iron  bridges  :  70,000  tons  of  steel  rails,  splices 
&c.  ;  8,000  tons  of  steel  in  the  docks  and  basins  ;  12,000  tons  in  the 
carriages  ;  and  10,000  in  the  floating  turn-tables  ;  besides  a  great 
variety  of  other  materials  and  plant  which  can  be  drawn  from  this 
country.  The  benefits  to  Mexico  will  be  the  employment  of  probably 
10,000  of  the  Isthmian  population,  who  are  robust,  active  and  faith- 
ful laborers.  The  provision  of  the  concession  which  permits  all  coal 
to  be  imported  free  of  duty  for  the  use  of  the  railway  and  for  supply- 
ing steamers  in  transit,  will  open  a  large  and  profitable  market  for  the 
coal  of  Alabama,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  Penn- 
sylvania. In  conclusion,  the  company  urge  this  government  to  en- 
courage this  great  undertaking,  confident  of  results  grandly  bene- 
ficial to  our  country. 

The  language  of  a  memorial  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, presented  by  the  Boird  of  Trade  of  San  Francisco,  in 
1880,  is  eminently  appropriate  in  1885  : 

"  Your  memorialists  therefore  pray,  that  when  an  organization 
"  with  proper  guarantees  applies  to  you  for  recognition  and  official 
"  encouragement,  the  Government  of  our  country  will  assume  the 
"  protection,  and  support  with  its  moral  influence,  the  execution  of 


70 

"  this  great  work,  upon  which  so  much  depends.  Your  sanction 
"  and  your  encouragement  will  make  this  essentially  an  American 
"Enterprise,  and  afford  such  a  guarantee  of  success  as  will  attract 
"  the  capital  of  Europe  to  complement  our  own.  Our  coast,  our 
"  country  and  the  world  are  ready  for  this  great  and  beneficent 
"  enterprise." 


CHAPTER  VII. 


STRONG  APPROVAL  OF  THE  SHIP  RAILWAY  ROUTE  AND  METHOD,  AND  OF 
GOVERNMENTAL  ENCOURAGEMENT,  BY  TWO  COMMITTEES  OF  THE 
46TH  CONGRESS. 

The  conclusions  of  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
(46th  Congress,  3d  session,  Report  No.  372,)  are  given  in  the  fol- 
lowing unanimous  Report  of  the  Senate  Committee  of  the  same  Con- 
gress. 

The  examinations  of  these  two  Committees  were  thorough  and  ex- 
haustive. The  testimony  taken  by  them  in  favor  of  the  practicabil- 
ity and  economy  of  the  Ship-Railway  was  from  the  highest  sources. 
The  proofs  are  convincing,  and  the  conclusions  of  the  Committee  are 
irresistible. 

The  Committee  on  Commerce,  to  whom  was  referred  the  bill  (S.  No. 
430,  ^6th  Congress,}  to  incorporate  the  Interoceanic  Ship-Railway  Com- 
pany, and  for  other  purposes,  have  had  the  same  under  consideration, 
and  beg  leave  to  submit  the  following  report  : 

The  first  question  the  committee  considered  was  as  to  the  practi- 
cability of  constructing  a  railway  for  the  purpose  of  transporting 
ships  and  their  cargoes.  The  testimony  before  the  committee  con- 
clusively demonstrates  the  fact  that  such  a  railway  is  entirely  practi- 
cable, and  that  loaded  vessels  can  be  transported  over  the  same  with 
absolute  safety  and  economy. 

The  committee  does  not  consider  it  necessary  to  enter  into  the  de- 
tails of  the  proposition  thus  stated,  but  refers  to  the  following  testi- 


71 

tnony   upon   the   subject,   given    by  the  most    prominent    and   able 
engineers  and  naval  architects  in  the  world. 

In  the  first  place  the  committee  would  refer  to  the  testimony  of 
Sir  Edward  J.  Reed,  K.  C.  B.,  late  chief  constructor  of  the  British 
navy,  who,  in  passing  through  Washington,  kindly  appeared  before 
the  committee  at  its  invitation,  and  gave  it  the  benefit  of  his  views. 
The  statement  of  Sir  Edward.  Reed  will  be  found  printed  in  full  in 
the  testimony  taken  before  the  committee.  Specific  reference  will 
now  be  made  only  to  some  of  the  matters  therein  contained. 

In  one  part  of  his  statement  he  says  : 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  modern  ships  of  to-day  are  vastly 
stronger  every  where  than  they  were  half  a  century  ago,  and  that  they  are 
now,  as  a  rule,  perfectly  capable  of  being  docked  in  dry-docks  with  their 
cargoes  on  board.  Of  course,  if  they  can  be  docked  in  a  dry-dock  (a  gra- 
ven and  sunk  dock,)  they  could  be  docked  upon  an  iron  lifting  or  hydraulic 
dock. 

Again  he  says  : 

I  should  like  to  say  at  first  that,  as  a  naval  constructor.  I  have  no  fear 
whatever  of  a  ship  undergoing  any  'strain  in  the  process  of  lifting  out  of 
the  water  (as  would  be  necessary  in  the  case  of  a  ship-railway,)  that  she  is 
not  liable  to  at  present  in  ordinary  docking.  I  would  say,  further,  that  I 
am  quite  sure  that  the  processes  of  ordinary  docking,  as  carried  on  in  a  vast 
number  of  private  establishments,  are  very  negligent  and  insufficient  in 
comparison  with  those  which  would  be  adopted  in  the  case  of  the  hy- 
draulic lifts  connected  with  the  proposed  ship-railway. 

In  speaking  of  the  docking  of  armor-clad  ships  upon  the  celebra- 
ted hydraulic  docks  at  Bombay,  Sir  Edward  says  : 

Therefore  to  dock  an  armor-clad  ship  is  really  to  dock  a  ship  with  the 
principal  part  of  her  cargo  on  board,  and  under  very  unfavorable  condi- 
tions, because  the  cargo  of  an  iron-clad  may  be  said  to  consist  of  her  ar- 
mor-chiefly, and  that  is  all  situated  upon  the  extreme  outside  of  her,  and 
acts  with  great  leverage  a.s  regards  the  keel,  whereas  an  ordinary  cargo  is 
laid  over  the  bottom  of  a  ship,  and  is  more  or  less  equally  distributed. 
This  dock  at  Bombay  has  been  in  operation  several  years,  and  has  docked 
her  Majesty's  ships  several  times,  and  some  others,  and  there  has  been  no 
sort  of  accident  or  complaint  of  any  kind.  On  the  contrary,  everybody 
has  been  surprised  to  find  that  in  no  case  has  an  accident  occurred,  whereas 
accidents  in  ordinary  docks  are  not  uncommon. 

In  speaking  of  the  hydraulic  docks  at  Malta,  Sir  Edward  says  : 
I  have  here  a  letter  from  the  secretary  of  this  hydraulic  dock  company 
giving  a  list  of  some  of  the  vessels  which  have  been  docked  with  cargo  on 
board.  I  will  only  pick  out  two  or  three  of  these.  There  is  a  vessel  called 
the  Volmer,  of  1,531  gross  tons,  which  went  in  with  a  cargo 
of  "1,200  tons'  weight.  A  ship  of  2,134  tons'  gross  tonnage  went 
on  the  dock  with  1,700  tons  of  cargo  aboard;  a  ship  of  1,555  gross 
tons  went  into  dock  with  1,500  tons  of  cargo,  and  others  of  like  proportion 
of  cargo  to  the  size  of  the  ship. 

I  would  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  although  ship-owners  were  at  first 
afraid  of  docking  ships  in  that  way,  with  their  cargoes  on  board,  they 
have  discovered  by  the  experience  of  years  that  no  sort  of  injury  does  re- 
sult therefrom.  The  ships  that  are  in  the  Indian  trade  now  voluntarily 
employ  these  docks  and  go  upon  them  with  their  cargoes  on  board  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  their  bottoms  cleaned  and  coated  on  the  voyage,  instead 
of  having  to  lie  in  a  more  expensive  dock  in  London  for  the  purpose. 


72 

Again  he  says  : 

I  would  not  like  to  dwell  longer  upon  what  I  believe  is  the  perfect 
practicability  of  docking  wooden  or  iron  ships  with  cargoes  if  they  are 
docked  with  care. 

Again  he  says  : 

I  would  like  to  mention  what  I  think  would  be  the  view  which  I  would 
take  of  this  question  if  I  were  an  American  citizen,  even  if  there  were 
doubts  about  the  perfect  security  with  which  you  could  take  some  of  your 
not  very  strong  wooden  vessels  across  the  isthmus.  I  should  say  that  the 
time  had  come  when  it  would  be  worth  the  while  of  this  country  to  take 
command  of  its  own  transit  by  such  a  route  as  this,  or  rather  to  give  en- 
couragement to  it  for  the  purpose  of  developing  in  America  that  which 
America  ought  to  possess,  namely,  the  means  of  conducting  the  transport 
of  its  own  produce  from  one  port  to  another. 

******* 

I  should  say,  as  an  American,  if  our  ships  are  not  adapted  for  this  pur- 
pose at  present,  let  them  be  made  so. 

*  *  .*  *  *  *  * 

It  would  be  very  improper  for  me  to  press  the  adoption  of  this  system 
upon  gentlemen  like  you,  because  to  tell  the  truth,  I  am  not  anxious  that 
it  should  be  adopted  in  the  form  in  which  Captain  Eads  put  it.  Looking 
to  the  enormous  shipping  interest  which  we  have  (we  are  60  per  cent,  now 
in  England  of  the  carrying  power  of  the  world),  I  am  quite  satisfied  that 
this  enterprise  can  be  dealt  with  by  British  ship-owners  and  capitalists,  and 
I  am  quite  sure  also  that  when  dealt  with  in  the  present  day,  and  with  in- 
terests of  the  kind  we  now  have  at  home,  they  would  obtain  the  protection 
of  the  government  for  their  enterprise.  The  premium  of  having  half  rates 
for  the  whole  British  shipping  passing  over  that  isthmus  would  be  so  great 
a  temptation  that  I  would  like  myself  to  get  Captain  Eads  to  coins  over 
and  ask  us  to  take  this  thing  up.  But,  however,  as  an  American  enter- 
prise, I  think  it  has  great  merit,  and  cannot  fail,  if  constructed  under  the 
auspices  of  the  United  States  Government,  to  greatly  benefit  your  com- 
merce. 

Again,  in  speaking  of  the  allegation  made  by  some  that  in  the 
transportation  of  ships  by  railway  there  would  be  much  jerking 
and  vibration,  which  would  be  liable  to  cause  damage,  Sir  Edward 
says  : 

They  seem  to  think  there  are  some  vibrations  or  jerking,  or  forces  of 
some  kind  the  ship  would  be  subjected  to  on  the  railway  that  she  is  not 
subjected  to  at  sea.  That  feeling,  I  know,  is  a  pretty  general  one.  I  can 
only  attribute  it  to  the  fact  that  the  gentlemen  who  so  think  are  not  ac- 
quainted with  the  strains  that  ships  undergo  at  sea. 

Again  he  says  : 

The  next  thing  I  vrould  say  is  that  we  have  ships  on  railways,  and  we 
have  them  in  the  worst  form.  Nothing  is  commoner  than  heaving  up 
slips  upon  which  ships  are  pulled  up  out  of  the  water.  They  have  to  take 
their  bearing  first  at  the  bow,  and  gradually  come  up  until  they  get  upon 
the  solid,  and  are  then  hauled  up  by  chains. 

That  has  been  done  everywhere,  all  over  the  world,  thousands  of  times 
in  this  country,  and  it  is  now  carried  on  to  a  very  large  extent  indeed. 
With  docks  for  ships  of  3,000  or  4,000  tons,  nothing  is  thought  of  pulling 
these  ships  up,  and  nothing  is  thought  of  any  strains  they  undergo  under 
the  circumstances. 


73 

In  speaking  of  the  liability  of  ships  while  in  transit  to  be  blown 
over  by  violent  stoims,  Sir  Edward  says  : 

If  it  is  sufficient  on  a  ship-railway  to  provide  against  something  like  the 
worst  hurricanes  at  sea,  then  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  is  per- 
fectly impossible  for  these  ships  on  the  railway  to  come  to  any  grief  from 
wind,  because  the  resistance  to  hold  the  ship  upright  on  her  cradle  on  the 
railway  track  is,  I  think,  very  many  times  greater  than  the  forces  which 
keep  her  upright  at  sea. 

After  speaking  of  the  track  and  locomotives  which  would  be  re- 
quired for  the  ship-railway,  Sir  Edward  says  : 

With  a  track  like  that,  and  with  locomotives  adapted  to  it,  there  would 
be  no  difficulty  in  transporting  ships.  It  would  be  best  to  avoid  a  very 
high  rate  of  speed.  It  would  not  be  necessary,  I  should  think,  to  move 
these  ships  at  a  greater  speed  than  eight  or  ten  "miles  an  hour,  although  I 
am  quite  prepared  to  believe  that,  with  a  proper  track  and  locomotives, 
vessels  could  be  transported  very  much  faster.  I  think  the  ship-railway 
would  be  likely  to  develop  as  much  as  the  ordinary  railway  has  done,  and 
create  as  many  surprises  ;  but  in  any  case  1  cannot,  for  the  life  of  me,  un- 
derstand where  is  to  enter  in  the  danger  to  a  ship  upon  a  car  traversing  a 
road  such  as  may  be  made  and  would  be  made  for  this  purpose. 
I  have  searched  for  it  in  vain,  and  I  cannot  find  the  element  of  danger. 

In  answer  to  inquiries  in  relation  to  the  economy  of  the  ship-rail- 
way as  compared  with  a  canal,  Sir  Edward  said  : 

I  have  made  some  calculations  as  to  the  weight  of  the  car  and  the  weight 
of  the  ship,  but  as  those  calculations  are  set  forth  in  a  letter,  which,  per- 
haps, the  committee  may  do  me  the  honor  of  reading,  I  should  not  like  to 
go  back  upon  memory  for  those  figures. 

In  the  letter  to  which  he  refers,  Sir  Edward  says  : 
As  regards  the  comparative  economy  of  transporting  a  ship's  cargo  by 
canal  or  railway,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  railway  would  prove 
the  more  economical  cf  the  two. 

It  was  stated  in  evidence  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
by  the  chairman  of  the  Great  Eastern  Railway  Company,  on  the  7th  March, 
1878,  that  coals  could  be  profitably  transported  by  this  company  at  the  rate 
of  id  per  ton  per  mile  ;  and  this  was  confirmed  by  the  locomotive  superin- 
tendent of  the  Northwestern  Railway,  on  the  21st  of  March,  1878.  If  we 
assume  that  the  total  distance  to  be  hauled  across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuan- 
tepec  is  150  miles,  it  would  appear  that  a  ship's  cargo  can  be  profitably 
carried  for  that  distance,  in  the  ship,  over  a  first-class  railway,  for  $0.75 
per  ton.  I  arrive  at  this  conclusion  from  the  following  considerations  : 
1st,  id,  or  one-half  cent,  per  mile  gives  $0.75  per  150  miles  ;  and  2d,  the 
weight  of  the  ship  and  car  upon  which  she  is  transported  appears  to  bear 
about  the  same  ratio  to  the  cargo  carried  in  the  ship  when  fully  loaded, 
that  the  weight  of  the  coal-car  bears  to  the  weight  of  coals  it  carries.  It 
was  also  stated  in  evidence,  on  the  occasion  above  referred  to,  that  the 
weight  of  coal  carried  on  one  truck  is  7|  tons,  and  the  weight  of  the  truck 
4|  tons.  The  paying  load  is,  therefore,  about  58  per  cent,  of  the  total ; 
and  this  is  about  the  proportion  that  the  cargo  would  bear,  in  man}"  ships, 
to  the  total  weight  of  the  ship,  car,  and  cargo.  These  facts  are  sufficient  to 
show  that  the  transport  by  ship-railway,  over  a  first-class  road  with  easy 
gradients,  in  a  country  where  fuel  is  abundant  and  labor  not  excessively 
dear,  ought  to  be  about  the  same  per  ton  per  mile,  for  the  cargo  carried, 
as  in  England.  If,  however,  we  assume  it  to  be  twice  as  expensive,  the 
rate  would  then  be  $1.50  per  ton  across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec.  I  am 
credibly  informed  that  at  this  time  $20  per  ton  is  being  paid  for  the 
transport  of  grain  from  California,  round  Cape  Horn,  to  Liverpool. 


74 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  are  two  elements  in  the  ship-rail- 
way plan  proposed  by  Captain  Eads  which  tend  to  greater  economy  than 
is  obtained  in  the  railway  system  of  England  :  1st,  the  ship-railway  will  be 
devoid  of  all  curves  ;  and,  2d,  the  cargo  transported  will  be  handled  wholly 
by  machinery,  and  in  vast  bulk. 

The  committee  will  not,  however,  occupy  more  time  in  quoting 
from  the  testimony  of  Sir  Edward  J.  Reed.  The  whole  of  that  tes- 
timony is  very  valuable  and  instructive,  and  will  well  repay  perusal. 

But  the  question  of  the  practicability  of  a  ship-railway  does  not  de- 
pend alone  upon  the  testimony  of  one  engineer,  however  distin- 
guished. Mr.  Eads  submitted  to  the  committee  a  number  of  letters 
and  certificates  from  the  most  distinguished  engineers  and  naval 
architects  abroad  and  in  this  country.  Attention  is  called  to  the 
following  extracts  from  some  of  these  certificates  and  letters. 

Nathaniel  Barnaby,  C.  B.,  present  chief  constructor  of  the  British 
navy,  in  a  letter  dated  London,  October  8,  1881,  says  : 

I  note,  therefore,  the  question  you  wish  to  put  to  me,  which  is  :  "Do  I 
think  the  problem  insoluble  of  constructing  a  car  on  which  a  fully  loaded 
ship  can  be  safely  transported  over  such  a  railway  as  could  be  built  through 
a  tolerably  level  country  ?  " 

In  reply  to  this,  I  say  not  only  that  it  is  soluble,  but  that  the  solution  is, 
in  my  opinion,  fairly  indicated  in  your  plans,  as  laid  before  the  committee 
on  interoceanic  canals  and  shown  to  me. 

Ships  which  would  be  strained  by  ordinary  docking  would  be  liable  to  be 
strained  also  when  suspended  on  a  car  not  specially  designed  for  their 
crazy  condition,  but  such  ships  would  be  still  more  strained  in  their  or- 
dinary sea  passages. 

Mr.  William  John,  who  was  for  some  years  the  scientific  adviser 
of  the  committee  of  Lloyd's  Register  of  British  Shipping,  London, 
and  who  built  the  Inman  steam  liner  the  City  of  Rome,  in  a  letter 
"dated  October  6,  1881,  says  : 

The  practice  of  lifting  a  ship  of  large  size  clean  out  of  the.  water  has  be- 
come an  every-day  occurrence.  The  further  step  of  lifting  her  to  a  con- 
siderable height  is  not  a  great  one,  especially  if  you  can  start  with  her 
floating  in  a  considerable  depth  of  water.  Beyond  these  the  conveyance 
of  her  over  a  railway,  provided  the  latter  is  moderate^  level  and  moder- 
ately straight,  is  a  simple  matter,  which  is  certainly  not  outside  the  reach 
of  civil  engineers. 

Mr.  John  Fowler,  who  was  consulting  engineer  of  the  Egyptian 
Government,  engineer  in  chief  of  the  Metropolitan  (underground) 
Railway  of  London,  and  who  is  a  past  president  of  the  Institute  of 
Engineers  in  England,  says  : 

You  will  be  interested  to  know  that  about  eight  years  ago,  when  acting 
as  consulting  engineer  to  the  Egyptian  Porte,  I  was  instructed  to  prepare  a 
project  for  the  transport  of  steamers  and  other  vessels  from  one  level  to  the 
other  at  the  first  cataract  of  the  Nile. 

After  a  very  careful  investigation  of  the  alternative  plans  of  canal  and 
ship-railway  on  the  spot,  I  decided  in  favor  of  the  railway,  having  satisfied 
myself  that  there  was  no  mechanical  difficulty  in  carrying  ships  of  any 
size,  without  injury  to  themselves,  on  a  properly  designed  car  or  cradle 
over  a  solidly  constructed  railway. 

Mr.  George  Fosbury  Lyster,  a  member  of  the  Institute   of  Civil 


75 

Engineers,  in  England,  and  engineer  in  chief  of  the  Liverpool  docks, 
in  a  letter  dated  November  2,  1881,  says  : 

In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  16th  ult.,  referring  to  the  several  interviews 
I  have  had  with  you  during  your  recent  visit  to  this  country,  on  the  inter- 
esting subject  of  your  proposed  ship-railway  across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuan- 
tepec,  as  also  to  the  papers  which  you  were  good  enough  to  leave  with  me, 
further  illustrating  your  opinions  on  the  point,  I  have  now  been  able  to  give 
the  whole  matter,  as  far  as  its  engineering  features  are  concerned,  very  care- 
ful consideration,  and  have  concluded  that  if  the  permanent  way,  cradle  ar- 
rangements, and  general  details  are  carried  out  in  the  ingenious  and  sub- 
stantial manner  you  described,  there  will,  in  my  judgment,  be  little  or  no 
difficulty  in  transporting  properly  constructed  ships  from  sea  to  sea  with 
entire  convenience  and  safety. 

Mr.  E.  Leader  Williams,  a  member  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  En- 
gineers in  England,  in  a  letter  dated  September  5,  1881,  says  : 

I  believe  that  your  ship-railway  only  requires  carrying  out  into  execu- 
tion to  prove  most  successful  in  every  way. 

The  firm  of  Clark  &  Standfield,  distinguished  English  civil  en- 
gineers, one  of  the  members  of  the  firm  (Mr.  Edwin  Clark)  having 
been  the  chief  assistant  of  Robert  Stephenson  in  building  the  cele- 
brated tubular  bridge  over  the  Menai  Straits,  and  who  introduced 
the  hydraulic  vertical-lift  system,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Eads,  dated  Lon- 
don, September  6,  1881,  says  : 

Referring  to  our  interview  on  the  subject  of  the  proposed  ship-railway 
across  the  American  isthmus,  we  now  beg  to  say  that  our  works  are  likely 
to  be  so  much  occupied  during  the  next  year  that  we  should  scarcely  be  in 
a  position  to  execute  any  works  out  of  England  in  connection  with  the 
proposed  railway,  but  we  should  be  very  happy  to  prepare  the  drawings 
for  the  construction  of  the  terminal  works,  for  lifting  the  vessels  at  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ports. 

We  understand  it  will  be  requisite  to  transport  loaded  vessels  of  the 
weight  of  4,000  to  6,000  tons,  more  or  less,  on  the  railway,  at  the  rate  of 
about  six  miles  per  hour,  on  a  gradient  of  one  or  two  per  cent. ,  and  that  it 
will  be  required  to  raise  the  vessels  on  a  railway  car  out  of  the  water  to  a 
variable  height,  not  exceeding  46  feet,  and  deposit  them  on  the  rails  in  a 
time  not  exceeding  thirty  minutes.  These  conditions  may  be  fulfilled  in 
two  different  ways,  and  we  need  not  say  that  it  is  a  plan  in  which  Mr. 
Edwin  Clark  has  entire  confidence,  and  in  which  he  will  take  the  fullest 
interest  in  arranging  the  details.  The  hydraulic  system  would  probably 
be  the  most  rapid,  but  probably  the  more  costly.  At  the  Bombay  hydraulic 
dock  we  have  lifted  weights  up  to  12,000  tons,  with  72  presses,  14  inches 
diameter,  and  36  feet  stroke.  The  Victoria  and  Malta  hydraulic  docks 
have  been  many  years  in  constant  operation. 

At  the  canal  lift  at  Fontinettes  we  employ  presses  with  rams,  6  feet  7 
inches  in  diameter,  with  a  50-feet  stroke.  Each  of  these  presses  will  raise 
a  dead  weight  of  1,030  tons  through  a  height  of  about  50  feet  in  three  min- 
utes. The  weight  is  a  movable  portion  of  the  canal,  about  182  feet  long, 
containing  the  water  and  a  barge  floating  in  it.  This  work  is  now  in 
course  of  construction  for  the  French  Government,  and  it  is  to  be  erected 
near  St.  Omer,  in  France,  and  we  are  now  designing  a  set  of  four  similar 
canal  lifts  for  the  Belgian  Government,  in  which  the  weight  raised  will  be 
somewhat  larger.  It  is  evident  that  a  few  presses  such  as  these  would 
more  than  accomplish  the  work  required. 

Our  ordinary  depositing  dock,  similar  to  that  at  Sebastopol,  which  raises 
vessels  of  6,000  tons,  would  also  meet  the  requirements  of  the  case  very 
satisfactorily.  We  are  now  constructing  a  second  of  these  docks,,  of  10,000 
tons,  for  the  Russian  Government  at  Vladivostok,  and  a  third,  of  3,000 


76 

tons,  for  the  Barrow  and  Railway  Company,  at  Barrow-in-Furness,  to  be 
afterwards  increased  to  5,000  tons.  We  have  designed  one  of  these  docks 
for  the  Italian  Government,  to  raise  ironclads  of  15,000  tons'  weight  with 
a  lift  of  30  feet.  There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  modifying  the  proportions 
so  as  to  render  it  suitable  for  a  lift  46  feet,  and  this  form  of  dock  raises 
the  vessels  out  of  the  water  and  deposits  them  on  a  gridiron  stage  in  a 
most  convenient  manner  for  railway  transport. 

It  will  probably  depend  to  a  great  extent  on  their  relative  cost  as  to 
which  of  these  systems  may  be  adopted,  and  we  shall  be  prepared  at  any 
time  to  go  into  the  necessary  calculations,  and  render  every  assistance  in 
our  power  towards  the  accomplishment  of  the  great  work  in  which  you 
are  engaged. 

We  apprehend  no  difficulty  in  perfecting  the  necessary  details  of  the 
plans  so  as  to  insure  the  safe  transportation  of  the  largest  loaded  ships  on 
the  railway  cars  with  absolute  safety. 

The  firm  of    Emerson,  Murgotroyd    &    Co.,   who  were    the  con- 
structors of  the  hydraulic  docks  at  Malta  and  Bombay,  say,  in  a  letter 
dated  October,  1881  : 
JAMES  B.  EADS,  Esq.,  C.  E.  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  When  you  are  ready  to  commence  the  construction  of 
your  ship-railway,  we  shall  be  pleased  to  undertake  the  building  and  com- 
pletion of  the  necessary  works  for  placing  the  ship,  with  her  cargo,  on  the 
railway  track,  ready  for  attaching  the  locomotives  to  her.  and  after  tran- 
sport across  the  isthmus  to  lower  her  safely  again  until  she  is  afloat.  A 
lifting  apparatus  will  be  required  at  each  side  of  the  isthmus  which  will 
lift  or  lower  ships  as  required.  This  portion  of  the  work  we  are  fully  pre- 
pared to  execute  with  the  greatest  promptness,  on  the  same  terms  on  which 
we  built  the  hydraulic  docks  at  Bombay  and  Malta,  and  the  Anderton 
Canal  Lift  in  Cheshire. 

We  have  no  hesitation  in  guaranteeing  the  lifting  of  a  fully-loaded  ship 
or  steamer  of  8,000  or  10,000  tons'  weight  on  a  railway  car  from  the  sea  or 
harbor  level  to  that  of  your  permanent  way  in  thirty  minutes,  with  absolute 
safety  to  the  ship  and  the  works,  where  the  lift  is  not  over  fifty  feet  verti- 
cally. We  will  undertake  to  construct  all  the  plans  and  works  necessary 
to  do  this  at  each  end  of  your  line,  and  complete  everything  ready  for  at- 
taching the  locomotive  to  the  car  on  which  the  ship  is  to  be  lifted  and 
transported  ;  this  car,  or  any  number  of  them,  we  will  furnish  also. 

The  locomotives  and  railway  construction  are  not  in  our  line  ;  but  if  it 
were  a  matter  of  importance  to  cover,  in  addition,  the  construction  of  the 
locomotives,  turn-tables,  &c.,  and  ten  miles  of  railway,  as  proposed  by 
you  to  the  United  States,  we  have  no  doubt  we  could  unite  with  us  some 
other  responsible  par-ties  engaged  in  that  kind  of  works,  to  execute  them 
and  guarantee  the  safe  transportation  of  the  loaded  ships  of  the  weight 
mentioned,  over  the  railway. 

Mr.  William  Pierce,  sole  proprietor  of  John  Elder  &  Company's 
works,  Govan,  Glasgow,  and  who  built  the  Arizona,  the  Elbe,  the 
Alaska,  and  others  of  the  largest  and  finest  steamers  afloat,  in  a  letter 
dated  August  26,  1881,  says  : 

I  am  of  the  opinion,  from  what  I  know  of  the  working  of  iron  floating 
docks  that  I  have  designed  and  built,  that  iron  steamers  of  4,000  to  5.000 
tons'  displacement  may  be  docked  loaded,  without  any  injury  whatever. 

It  is  also  my  opinion  that  a  ship-railway  for  vessels  of  this  size  may  be 
constructed  and  worked  successfully,  provided  the  land  is  solid  and  the 
line  moderately  level. 

Captain  Edward  Hartt,  United  States   Naval  Constructor,  says,  in 
a  letter  dated  Orange,  N.  J.,  January  22.  1881  : 
With  a  substantial  road-bed  for  your  railway,  on  the  easy  grades  across 


77 

Tehuantepec,  which,  I  understand,  do  not  exceed  one  or  two  feet  in 
the  hundred,  there  can  be  no  mechanical  difficulty  in  the  way  of  tran- 
sporting loaded  ships  by  railroad  with  entire  safety  to  the  vessel,  whether 
they  be  built  of  wood  or  iron. 

Mr.  H.  L.  Fernald,  another  constructor  in  the  United  States  Navy, 
says  : 

Having  carefully  examined  the  plans  and  papers  pertaining  to  your  pro- 
posed ship-railway  across  the  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  that,  in  my  judgment,  there  will  be  no  difficulty  whatever  in  trans- 
porting, in  the  manner  you  propose,  any  properly  built  vessel  with  abso- 
lute safety. 

Gen.  Q.  A.  Gilmore,  of  the  United  States  Engineers,  says  : 
In  my  judgment  the  construction  of  a  ship-railway  across  the  Mexican 
Isthmus,  in  general  accordance  with  your  plan,  is  not  only  feasible  as  an 
engineering  problem,  but  the  successful  maintenance  and  operation  of 
such  a  road  is  entirely  practicable  as  a  business  enterprise. 

Major  Charles  R.  Suter,  of  the  United  States  Engineers,  says  : 
The  project  has  great  and  obvious  advantages  to  recommend  it ;  and 
from  an  engineering  point  cf  view,  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  perfectly  practi- 
cable. 

Professor  E.  A.  Fuertes,  dean  of  the  department  of  civil  engineer- 
ing in  Cornell  University,  and  chief  engineer  in  the  survey  made 
by  Commodore  Schufeldt,  of  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  and  who 
was  for  eleven  months  upon  the  Isthmus,  says  : 

When  your  ship-railway  project  appeared,  and  was  ridiculed  by  in- 
considerate engineers,  I  made  computations  which  proved  conclusively  to 
my  mind  that  the  Great  Eastern  could  be  carried  safely  overland  upon 
rails  with  less  strain  to  her  timbers  than  in  any  of  her  sea  voyages. 

Again,  in  speaking  of  the  grades  which  would  be  encountered 
upon  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  Professor  Fuertes  says  : 

I  can  assure  you,  npon  knowledge  of  every  inch  of  the  ground,  that  you 
will  find  no  difficulty  about  curves,  grades  or  bridges.  The  ascent  of  the 
Atlantic  slope  will  offer  no  more  difficulties  than  the  Hudson  River  Rail- 
road, a_nd  on  the  Pacific  side,  either  one  of  three  passes  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Tarifa  or  Chivela  will  allow  of  no  steeper  grade  than  twenty-five  to 
thirty-five  feet  per  mile  to  bring  you  down  to  the  Pacific  Plains.  The 
ground  offers  you  fifty  miles  to  get  down  in,  and  as  much  more  as  you  may 
wish  by  following  the  hillside.  All  the  bridges  required  will  be  of  com- 
paratively short  spans.  You  will  find  very  little  anxious  work  on  either 
terminal  harbor,  very  little  tentative  work  being  required,  and  perma- 
nence without  ulterior  complications  will  reward  almost  any  kind  of  attack. 
The  drainage  of  the  works,  building  materials  (including  excellent  cement 
yielding  dolomitic  limestone,  between  San  Miguel  and  Tarifa),  abundant 
native  labor,  a  remarkably  healthy  climate,  &c.,  will  be  all  you  may 
desire. 

Don  Francisco  de  Garay,  whom  the  French  Government  made  a 
member  of  the  legion  of  honor  in  recognition  of  his  abilities  as  .a 
civil  engineer,  and  who  was  detailed  by  the  Mexican  Government 
(he  being  the  engineer  of  the  valley  of  Mexico),  to  make  a  survey 
of  the  Isthmus  after  the  concession  was  granted  to  Mr.  Eads,  in  a 
report  to  Mr.  Eads,  dated  Mexico,  September  22,  1881,  says  : 

Now  with  regard  to  grades  :  I  have  no  grade  on  my  line  above  two  per 


78 

cent,  and  for  no  greater  distance  than  two  and  a  half  miles.  The  ascent 
to  the  summit,  as  well  as  the  descent,  are  constant,  but  divided  in  different 
short  sections. 

To  resume  what  we  have  said,  we  See  : 

1st.  That  the  line  traced  and  located  by  our  commission  for  the  present 
is  only  a  study  that  may  be  improved  and  perhaps  even  abandoned  for  a 
better  line,  if,  in  subsequent  surveys  more  favorable  ground  is  found. 

2d.  That  such,  as  it  has  been  traced  and  located,  the  line  from  the  Pa 
cific  to  the  Chichihua  River  has  only  one  break  in  a  distance  of  fifty  miles 

3d.  That  in  all  the  line  there  is  no  grade  greater  than  two  per  cent.,  and 
in  no  greater  distance  than  two  and  a  half  miles. 

4th.  That  the  greatest  cutting  is  312  feet  in  maximum  depth,  and  2,500 
feet  in  length. 

5th.  And,  finally,  that  the  results  obtained  have  demonstrated  the  entire 
practicability  of  the  ship-railway. 

General  G.  T.  Beauregard,  formerly  of  the  United  States  Engineer 
Corps,  says  : 

I  take  pleasure  in  communicating  to  you,  in  as  few  words  as  possible, 
my  views  relative  to  the  practicability  and  economy  of  a  ship-railway 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec.  I  feel  no  hesitancy  in  saying  that  I 
see  no  difficulty  in  constructing  a  railway  strong  enough  to  carry  out  the 
object  referred"to.  It  is  only  a  question  of  the  strength  of  the  cradle  to 
hold  the  ship,  and  the  division  of  weight  on  a  sufficient  number  of  rails  and 
wheels,  which  can  certainly  be  accomplished  by  any  engineer  of  ability 
and  ingenuity. 

As  to  the  danger  a  loaded  ship  would  incur  in  being  transported  on  a 
smooth  and  well-built  railway,  it  is  all  imaginary,  for  it  would  be  well- 
braced  and  cushioned  in  a  strong  car  or  platform,  supported  by  spiral 
steel  springs  on  a  very  large  number  of  wheels,  which,  being  separate  from 
each  other,  could  be  easily  replaced  if  broken  during  the  trip.  Moreover,, 
the  breaking  of  one  or  a  few  of  them  out  of  so  many  would  not  endanger 
the  rest. 

With  regard  to  the  economy  of  such  a  ship-railway,  I  would  remark  that 
the  tonnage  carried  over  it  being  moved  entirely  by  machinery,  and  the 
ratio  of  paying  cargo  to  dead  weight  being  much  greater  than  that  on  ordi- 
nary railroads,  the  cost  of  operating  such  a  railway  must  be  much  less.  The 
cost  of  maintenance  should  also  be  less  in  proportion,  for  the  road  would 
be  substantially  built  and  short,  in  comparison  to  the  amount  of  tonnage 
carried  over  it.  Moreover,  the  machinery  used  should  be  simple  and  sub- 
stantially made.  It  is,  therefore,  safe  to  assume  that  the  current  expenses 
and  those  of  maintenance  would  not  exceed  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  gross  re- 
ceipts, which  would  be  more  profitable  than  from  a  canal  costing  probably 
two  or  three  times  more  than  a  ship-railway,  and  requiring  three  or  four 
times  longer  to  build,  thereby  increasing  greatly  the  amount  of  interest 
alone  on  the  actual  cost  of  the  canal. 

A  ship-railway  has  other  important  advantages  over  a  canal,  such  as  the 
facility  with  which  the  number  of  trucks  could  be  increased  to  accommo- 
date the  demands  of  commerce  ;  the  rapidity  of  transit  and  the  greater 
number  of  vessels  per  day  that  could  be  transported  than  through  a 
canal ;  the  practicability  of  building  a  railway  where  a  canal  would  be 
impossible  the  ability  of  estimating  correctly  for  the  first,  while  the  latter 
if  partially  built  under  the  water,  or  liable  to  be  submerged  or  interrupted 
by  water,  would  be  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  be  estimated  for  as 
to  cost  and  time  of  completion. 

Mr.  H.  D.  Whitcomb,  civil  engineer  in  charge  of  the  works  for 
improvement  of  the  James  River,  says  : 

The  idea  is  worthy  of  the  age,  and  to  make  it  a  success  you  have  simply 
to  improve  and  expand  the  details  of  the  old  marine  railway  and  make  it 


more  perfect.     I  have   the  greatest  confidence   in  your  ability  in  this  par- 
ticular, and  hope  you  will  have  the  opportunity  to  demonstrate  it. 

Mr.  William  F.  Buckley,  president  of  the  New  York  Balanced 
Dock  Company,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Eads,  dated  February  14,  1881, 
gives  the  following  list  of  vessels  taken  out  on  his  dock  with  cargoes 
in  them  : 

Ship  Great  Victoria  2,386  tons  ;  ship  Triumphant,  2,046  tons ;  ship 
America,  2,054  tons  ;  ship  Hagerstown,  1,903  tons  ;  ship  8.  C.  Blanchardr 
1,903  tons  ;  steamer  Colorado,  2,765  tons  ;  steamer  Rio  Grande  2,565 
tons  ;  steamer  Thingvalla,  2,436  tons  ;  steamer  Monarch,  2,366*&on8  ; 
steamer  Lepanto,  2,310  tons  ;  steamer  State  of  Nevada,  2,488  tons. 

And  says  : 

We  do  not  refuse  any  class  of  ships  or  steamers,  even  with  their  coals 
and  cargoes  on  board,  whose  length  does  not  exceed  the  length  of  the  dock, 
in  every  case  in  which  we  have  taken  up  steamers  with  cargoes  in,  it  has 
been  done  without  the  least  strain  or  injury  to  the  vessel.  As  the  rule  is 
to  make  a  charge  for  raising  cargo  in  the  vessel,  they  usually  come  with- 
out cargo. 

The  above  are  some  of  the  witnesses  as  to  the  entire  practicability 
of  a  ship-railway.  There  are  many  others  of  equal  distinction  in 
their  profession  who  have  expressed  the  same  views,  but  the  commit- 
tee does  not  consider  that  it  is  necessary  to  quote  further.  The  tes- 
timony upon  this  subject  is  so  overwhelming  and  conclusive  in  its 
character  that  the  committee  has  no  hesitation  in  reporting  that  the 
construction  of  a  ship-railway  and  its  successful  operation  are  en- 
tirely practicable. 

But  even  if  there  were  doubt  as  to  the  practicability  of  a  ship- 
railway,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  could  with  perfect 
safety  to  itself  pass  the  bill  desired  by  Mr.  Eads,  because  under 
the  provisions  of  that  bill  the  Government  guarantee  cannot  attach 
or  have  any  force  or  effect  until  the  practicability  of  the  project  shall 
have  been  fully  and  satisfactorily  demonstrated. 

The  next  question  arising  is  as  to  the  best  route  for  a  transit-way 
for  vessels  across  the  Isthmus.  During  the  third  session  of  the 
Forty-sixth  Congress  a  special  committee  of  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives charged  with  the  duty  of  considering  all  questions  relating  to 
Isthmian  transit,  after  the  most  full  and  exhaustive  investigation,  re- 
ported in  favor  of  Mr.  Eads'  ship-railway  project,  and  selected 
Tehuantepec  as  by  all  means  the  most  preferable  route  for  the  tran- 
sit-way. In  this  report  the  committee  say  : 

Mr.  Eads  has  selected  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  and  your  committee 
unhesitatingly  finds  and  reports  that,  of  all  the  routes  across  the  isthmus, 
Tehuantepec  is  essentially  the  American  route.  A  glance  at  the  map  will 
at  once  demonstrate  the  correctness  of  this  assertion.  If  a  vessel  leaving 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river  bound  for  California  or  the  Orient, 
cross  the  isthmus  at  Tehuantepec,  her  voyage  will  be  1,250  miles  shorter  in 
distance  than  if  she  crossed  at  Nicaragua,  and  2,200  miles  shorter  than  if 
she  crossed  at  Panama.  If  a  vessel  leaving  New  York,  bound  for  the 
same  destination,  cross  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  her  voyage  will  be 
750  miles  shorter  than  if  she  went  by  Nicaragua,  and  1,250  miles  shorter 
than  if  she  went  by  Panama.  Inasmuch  as  this  large  saving.of  distance 


80 


chiefly  affects  only  the  commerce  of  this  country  and  that  of  Mexico,  and 
not  the  commerce  of  Europe,  it  must  be  at  once  "apparent  that  the  location 
of  a  transit- way  at  Tehuantepec  is  of  vital  importance  to  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  United  States. 

The  saving  of  distance  is  synonymous  with  cheap  transportation.  Both 
at  Panama  and  Nicaragua,  at  various  periods  throughout  the  year,  calms 
prevail  to  an  extent  which  would  greatly  decrease  the  value  of  either  of 
the  routes  for  sailing  vessels.  Such,  however,  is  not  the  case  at  Tehuante- 
pec, as  favorable  winds  always  prevail  there,  thus  affording  a  guarantee 
of  no  serious  detention  to  saiJing  vessels  seeking  a  passage  by  that  route. 

The  committee  has  considered  the  testimony  taken  before  the 
House  committee,  and  fully  indorse  the  statement  that  Tehuantepec 
is  the  American  route,  and  that  the  transit-way  should  by  all  means 

be  located  there  in  preference  to  any  other  point  upon  the  Isthmus. 
•&•&•***•&#  *•& 

Without  going  into  further  details,  the  committee  are  of  opinion 
that  the  concession  is  a$  tifat  could  be  desired  by  our  government, 
The  special  committee  of  the  House,  before  referred  to,  after  enum- 
erating in  its  report  some  of  the  details  of  the  concession,  says  : 

In  the  opinion  of  your  committee,  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  for  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  to  fail  to  recognize,  in  a  substantial  way, 
the  overtures  thus  made  by  Mexico.  The  duty  of  our  Government  in  the 
premises  is  a  plain  one,  whether  viewed  from  a  selfish  or  unselfish  stand- 
point. If  viewed  in  the  former  light,  it  must  be  apparent  to  any  one  at 
all  familiar  with  the  enormous  commercial  interests  which  will  be  affected 
by  the  great  work  proposed  that  any  liberality  exercised  by  our  Govern- 
ment will  be  returned  a  hundred  fold  in  the  increased  benefits  resulting 
to  our  commerce.  Of  the  valuable  and  growing  commerce  of  Mexico  the 
t  United  States  now  enjoys  but  5  per  cent.  ;  95  per  cent,  of  it  is  enjoyed  by 
'  other  nations.  The  markets  of  Mexico  are  to-day  practically  closed  to  the 
products  of  our  soil  and  industry,  while  there  is  no  good  reason  that  they 
should  not  be  open  to  both. 

The  combined  commerce  of  British  India,  Australia,  China,  Hong-Kong, 
Peru,  New  Zealand,  Chili,  Japan,  the  Philippine  Islands,  Tasmania,  ind  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  amounts  to  $1,425,953,000  annually.  Of  his  vast  com- 
merce the  United  States  only  enjoys  4  per  cent.,  and  the  M"  assippi  Valley, 
comprising  a  territory  equal  in  extent  to  six-tenths  of  the  total  area  of  the 
thirty-eight  States  of 'the  Union,  is  wholly  debarred  therefrom.  An  increase 
of  our  trade,  nearly  doubling  it  in  this  quarter,  would  more  than  compen- 
sate the  United  States  for  the  guarantee  asked  by  Mr.  Eads. 

Leaving  out  of  view  the  question  of  interest,  it  would  scarcely  be  con- 
sistent with  the  dignity  and  magnanimity  of  as  great  a  country  as  ours  to 
reject  the  friendly  proffers  of  a  sister  republic,  and  refuse  to  lend  any  as- 
sistance to  a  great  work  like  that  proposed  ;  especially  so  in  view  of  the 
revived  fraternal  feeling  now  existing  there  towards  us. 

*  *  *  -x-  ***** 

Believing  that  the  commercial  interests  of  this  country  will  be 
largely  benefited  by  the  construction  of  a  ship-railway,  that  it  will 
have  a  tendency  to  infuse  new  life  into  our  now  languishing  com- 
merce, and  that  it  is  essential  that  if  our  government  would  retain 
the  respect  of  its  own  people  and  of  foreign  nations,  that  it  should 
now  practically  demonstrate  its  determination  to  forever  discourage 
foreign  control  upon  this  continent,  the  committee  report  back  the 
bill  favorably,  with  certain  amendments,  and  with  the  recommenda- 
tion that  it  do  pass. 


YC--256.I2 


